Mumbai Crime: 3 held, 175 Facebook accounts deleted as cyber cell busts 'sextortion' racket

A press conference being conducted about the racket. Pic Courtesy/ Faizan Khan

The Cyber Cell of Mumbai Crime Branch on Monday arrested three people, froze 175 Facebook accounts and busted a massive ‘sextortion' racket targeting politicians, bureaucrats and celebrities. The accounts were using photographs of women to target people, said cyber cell officials.

According to crime branch, the accused were arrested from the tri-junction of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan."They have been creating fake accounts with pictures of good looking women to target people, mainly celebrities, politicians and bureaucrats. There are multiple complaints which are being investigated," said Milind Bharambe, joint commissioner of crime, Mumbai

"We have blocked 175 Facebook accounts and have frozen 58 accounts where the money was being transferred by the victims as sextortion," he added.

The accused send Facebook and Instagram requests to targets and then indulge in friendly talk with them."Once they get acquainted with the victim, they start making video calls playing pornographic clips," said Bharambe.

The cyber cell found that once the victim indulges in any sexual acts over video call while watching the pornographic clips, the accused take screen grabs and then use them to extort money by threatening that the pictures will be shared on social media.