New Cyber Trap! Using Obscene Pictures after Video Call to Extort Money by a Gang from Rajasthan

There has been a recent surge of cyber crimes in Silchar, where bank accounts get drained while shopping online or websites of education institutions gets hacked. The latest instance of such deed is where fake profiles having display picture of young woman send friend requests to selected random people, video calls them late at night, captures their photo through it and then photoshops their images into nude pictures to extort money from them. In many parts of the valley, including Silchar, youths have fallen victim to such cyber extortion cases. But they are not opening their mouths for the fear that their obscene pictures will go viral. Most of the victims happen to be men.

Recently, a young man working in a government office in the city fell victim to this cyber gang. However, he did not comply by sending money but rather went directly to the police. Police officials know him, so the numbers from which he received calls were tracked and it is now known that they are being run from Rajasthan. In other words, a gang from Rajasthan is keeping an eye on the youths of Barak Valley and is grabbing up their phone numbers as well as several other personal information.

According to the victim, a young woman named Riya Sharma sent him a friend request on Facebook. A profile with the display picture of a beautiful girl, having many acquaintances in the list of mutual friends, so he accepted the request. Then the conversation started. Suddenly a video call request comes in the middle of the night. Encouraged by the young woman’s video call request in the middle of the night, romantic conversation transpired through the video call while lying in bed. He did not realize then that his conversation was being recorded, that the girl was collecting videos and photos of him half-naked. The next day, all of a sudden, his photoshopped nude image came up on WhatsApp. After a while, a call from an unknown number comes demanding a hefty sum of money, the result of which if not complied would be to leak everything on Facebook. A number was given to make the payment through Google Pay platform which goes as 6372449864. The numbers from which the calls were made are 7381685412 and 7300279686.

Last year, a web series became very popular named ‘Jamtara’. Sitting in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh, a huge cyber gang was cheating people starting from Delhi to other big cities of the country. Recently, websites of several colleges of Barak Valley including Silchar were hacked by some miscreants. Earlier, cyber gangs have misappropriated a lot of money in the name of online shopping. The video call gang is the newest addition to this group. Even if some of them do send money, the demand does not seem to stop there. First Rs. 10,000, then 25,000 and 50,000, they blackmail their victims into extorting huge sums of money. This is the new cyber crime in the city now. Such incidents are happening every now and then in Barak Valley and many do not even utter any words openly but spend their days in intimidation and fear.

Many young people in the city have expressed their concern in this regard but have not agreed to speak publicly. They have even given us the numbers from which they have been called and provided the Google-Pay number for the transaction. They have approached the police but did not lodge any written complaint yet, so no strict action was taken by the police. Though many youths are not aware of this even now, many are secretly being the victims of this cyber attack.