‘Sextortion’ racket busted in Haryana's Bhiwani; 728 trapped

Tribune News Service

Hisar, February 4

An investigation into the alleged Rs 37 lakh “sextortion” from an elderly man in Bhiwani has led the Haryana Police to the busting of a racket wherein the accused would blackmail people by morphing the recording of video calls made through WhatsApp.

Rs 3 crore extorted

• Accused would make a WhatsApp video call to the victim and show a porn clip being played on another phone when the call was answered
• The video call was recorded and the victim’s face morphed into the porn clip
• Morphed videos were then sent to victims with a threat to upload these on social media
• Then came the extortion calls

Bhiwani SP Varun Singla said they had arrested eight persons and recovered 19 mobile phones that were used for the video calls. The accused would call the victims, record the video and transpose the faces of victims in porn clips to extort money, said the police.

The police officer said they had so far found that the accused made extortion calls to 728 persons in various states and union territories and extorted around Rs 3 crore. The matter came to light two weeks ago when the elderly man from Bhiwani’s Sector 13 lodged a police complaint. The man alleged that he received a video call on WhatApp and when he answered it, a girl was seen undressing on the caller’s mobile phone. After he disconnected the call, the accused sent him morphed videos in which he was purportedly seen alongside the nude girl.

The complainant alleged that he subsequently started getting calls from extortionists who identified themselves as officials from the CBI and the Delhi Police’s crime branch. He was threatened with dire consequences if he didn’t give in to their demands for money. The man ended up paying Rs 36.84 lakh over two days on January 17 and 18. However, when the accused demanded another Rs 20 lakh, the man shared the matter with his family members, who approached the police.

The police traced the mobile numbers to Deeg district of Rajasthan and arrested the eight persons. “The 19 mobile phones have been sent for cyber examination. The accused had extorted about Rs 3 crore from 728 persons through the fraud, which is a form of sextortion,” the police officer said.

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