Mumbai: Hackers attack users of porn sites, demand payment in bitcoin

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Be careful the next time you click on a pornographic website. Hackers are now lurking around those domains, and creating fake ones, to threaten users into paying them bitcoin, claiming they have access to their personal pictures, videos, computer and daily activities. Officers of the Maharashtra cyber police are appealing to people not to fall for this stunt.

Cyber cops have been receiving complaints from men and women regarding emails where they have been threatened by such hackers.

Ransom demand
The Bhoiwada police also registered a complaint from a man in this regard on Wednesday. The complainant said he got the e-mail after registering himself on a paid porn site, with a similar threat. The hackers asked him to pay R3 lakh in bitcoin soon, failing which they'd make his private details public and send out screenshots of him watching porn. While cops investigate these cases, they have appealed to the public not to fall for such mails and, more importantly, not share any personal details.

Cops' warning
Superintendent of Police (cyber crime), Balsingh Rajput, said, "This is a trap laid for innocent people. In reality, they [hackers] don't really have pictures or videos of people. We're investigating the issue."

A cyber expert from the police team said, "There are some porn sites that mistakenly get started or connect to some apps. Criminals make such web portals and apps to trap people. All these bitcoin activities are going on to raise the market value of the currency, nothing else."

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