Sextortionists on the prowl

The crime has already taken the lives of two people, one from Langer Houz and another from Nizamabad

Hyderabad: Combining sex and extortion, crooks who have turned ‘sextortionists’ are the new Gabbar Singhs of the cyber underworld, even driving victims to suicide. This dreaded tribe, who extort money from victims after recording their nude videos, send friend requests to people randomly on Facebook, collect their phone numbers, engage in sleazy chats on WhatsApp, slowly get them to strip, record it, even if it is for five seconds, and later blackmail them for money.

The crime has already taken the lives of two people, one from Langer Houz in the city and another from Nizamabad district after the victims decided to end their lives unable to handle the threats of the sextortionists.

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According to KVM Prasad, ACP (Cybercrime), Hyderabad, the fraudsters were creating Facebook accounts with profile pictures of ‘beautiful’ women, and when the victims, mostly men, accepted their friend request, would shift conversations to WhatsApp.

“After a few days, they take the conversations to an intimate level and the ‘woman’ asks the victim for a nude chat. When they respond, the fraudsters quickly record their act using mobile phones and before the victim realises what is happening, his act is recorded. Most of the clips we found with the fraudsters were of just five or ten seconds,” Prasad said.

The gangs then threaten the victim to transfer huge amounts via online modes, failing which they say they will upload the videos on social media or send them to their other friends on Facebook. Due to fear of social stigma, many people pay up, and if not able to, end their lives.

“In many instances, victims do not come forward to lodge a complaint fearing social stigma. Whenever cases are booked, we are investigating and nabbing the offenders from across the country,” said S Harinath, ACP (Cybercrime), Rachakonda.

Earlier, gangs from West Bengal were notorious for such crimes, but now gangs operating from Rajasthan and Haryana too are active, officials said, adding that gangs from Alwar, Bharatpur and Mewat, who were previously known for e-commerce portal frauds, were now into sextortion, Facebook and WhatsApp frauds apart from QR Code scam too. The police have asked the public not to accept friend requests from strangers on Facebook or other social media platforms.

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