Mumbai: 54-year-old Andheri-based widower loses Rs 5.28 lakh to sextortion

Representative image. Pic/Istock

A 54-year-old widower from Andheri lost over Rs five lakh when he befriended an unknown woman on Facebook who lured him into a trap by making him strip in front of a phone. The video was later used by the fraudsters and extorted Rs 5.28 lakh from him.

The incident took place last week when the victim received a friend request from Priyanka Jain, soon after accepting the request she messaged him and asked for his WhatsApp number. Unknown of any such frauds the victim shared his number. Around 8.30 pm on September 2, the victim received a WhatsApp call from Priyanka who asked him to go to the bathroom. She then asked him to undress and she also removed her clothes read the First Information Report (FIR) which is in the possession of Mid-Day.

Five minutes later she disconnected the call and made a voice call only to inform him that she had recorded the entire conversation and asked the victim to transfer Rs 16,400 otherwise threatened to circulate the video. Fearing of being defamed the victim transferred her Rs 30,000. However, that was just the beginning.

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Two days later the victim received a call from a person who identified himself as a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer and warned the victim that his nude video is getting uploaded on social media.

He further shared a number of purported YouTube official Ashok to take down the video. Both of them then continued to ask for money in the name of taking down the video stated in the FIR. The accused extorted a total Rs 5.28 lakh. In a week when their demands never stopped, the victim shared his ordeal with his brother who advised him to approach the police.

In his statement, the victim stated that his wife passed away in 2019 and since then he has been in depression and his brother and son take care of him.

The Andheri police have registered an offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for impersonation (419), cheating (420) and criminal intimidation (506) along with section 67 A (Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit) and 66 D (punishment for cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.