Next time, be careful while making ‘friends’ on dating apps or social media platforms! Online fraudsters have adopted new tricks of sextortion to dupe and blackmail people.
The cyber tricksters make video calls to their ‘targets’ on Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp after getting their numbers during their chat.
They put a woman’s photo as a profile photo and chat with the victims and express their desire to speak to them over video calls.
When a victim agrees, he gets a call from the ‘woman’, and on answering the call, he sees her in a nude state with face covered, or the video gets paused and one can only hear the voice.
These online fraudsters make video calls on random numbers in which a nude woman chats with the targeted victim.
The fraudsters record the victims chatting with the woman using the screen recording application and then send the video to the victims with a threat to pay money or else they would share their chatting video on social media platforms.
“In the virtual world, the thumb rule is you should not believe the person with whom you are talking to. She/he could be a cyber crook. But most of the complainants made that mistake and blindly believed the person on the other side. Accepting friend requests from strangers on Facebook could result in loss of reputation and money,” said Sameeran Baishya, SDPO of Salbari sub division.
Baishya alerted people through social media that the victims should inform the police immediately keeping aside fear and doubt which will help in nabbing the culprits.
He also asked people not to receive WhatsApp video calls coming from unidentified numbers.
It is important to never share personal photos or videos with strangers over the telephone or online.
“A girl I met on Facebook asked me if I can share my WhatsApp number after a few days of chatting on messenger. I did it and she started the conversation and after a while, she sent me an erotic image of her,” a victim said told this correspondent.
“After some chats, she told me that she wants to have a video conversation with me, to which I agreed. But few seconds after the call a male identify showed up on the phone screen and asked me to provide the money.
“They told me that they had captured and prepared a naked video conversation of mine with that woman. Now they are blackmailing me to release that video on Facebook and demanded Rs 10000,” he said.
“Later, I immediately informed the police and submitted a complaint at the Police Station,” he added.
Another victim said, “A girl send me a friend request, I accept it. She calls me through messenger. I received it, after that, I saw a necked girl on the screen. I knew something went wrong. Suddenly, I blocked the girl and report the Facebook account. Luckily my front camera is not working at that time due to a software issue.”
As per reports, many such incidents happened. Some people don’t want to complain because of their reputation.