Cybercriminal poses as former Delhi Police commissioner, dupes 75-year-old man of over ₹7 lakh
The Hindu
Cyber scammers extorted a man from Delhi of over ₹7 lakh by using a morphed obscene video of the man
In a case of sextortion, a 75-year-old resident of Vasant Kunj was defrauded of ₹7.34 lakh by a group of cybercriminals, one of whom posed as former Delhi Police commissioner Rakesh Asthana.
The cyber scammers trapped K.N. Joshi using the modus operandi of obscene video chat followed by a call for extortion.
Mr. Joshi, in his complaint with the Delhi Police, has said that on January 15, he received a message saying “hello” from a woman who introduced herself as Anjali Sharma.
She then asked for a video call and appeared nude, he said in his complaint, adding, “In a few minutes, the call was disconnected.” Two days later, on January 17, she shared a morphed obscene video of Mr. Joshi and threatened that if he didn’t pay ₹61,000, she would make it viral on social media. Mr. Joshi said that he immediately blocked the number.
Then on January 25, he missed a call from an unknown number. “I called back on the number, and the person told me that he was Rakesh Asthana, Police Commissioner of Delhi. He said that he got information about the video call with Anjali and asked me whether you have contacted her,” Mr. Joshi told the police.
“I told him that I never met her. He said that Anjali is a drug smuggler whose actual name is Neha and shared a copy of the FIR. He said that the video is going viral on YouTube and gave me the number of Dhyaneshwar Bajirao,” he said.
When Mr. Joshi contacted Mr. Bajirao, he demanded ₹21,500 and ₹43,000 through a digital wallet to delete those videos and assured him that he would get back the money.