Bengaluru Woman Extorted Of Rs 10 Lakh After Being Forced To Strip On Camera
A woman lawyer from Bengaluru fell victim to cybercriminals who allegedly coerced her into stripping on camera and reportedly, extorting Rs 10 lakh from her. The perpetrators, operating under the guise of law enforcement and delivery services, subjected the victim to a 36-hour ordeal, threatening to sell compromising footage on the dark web.
On April 7, a complaint was registered under the IT Act and relevant section of the IPC to extortion and cheating at the Bengaluru East division cybercrime police station.
The 29-year-old victim claimed that she received a phone call from individuals posing as customer care of the international courier firm FedEx, informing her of a suspicious package bound for Thailand containing five passports, three credit cards, and illegal substances, including 140 synthetic narcotics (MDMA) sent from Mumbai. After the victim’s call was transferred to Mumbai’s cybercrime team to register a complaint of identity theft, she was instructed to download Skype and enter an email ID to talk to the officials.
The fraudsters claimed that the victim’s Aadhar card was on high alert for human trafficking and drug offenses. One of the perpetrators, claiming to be a CBI officer named Abhishek Chauhan, allegedly manipulated the victim into disclosing financial information, including details about her existing balance, annual CTC, monthly income and investments under the guise of verification procedures.
The lawyer claimed that she was forbidden from contacting her parents and the police, as the fraudsters said that the case was “highly sensitive.” The victim was told to keep her camera on even when she was sleeping for an entire day to monitor her actions. She was asked to transfer Rs 10,78,993 from her bank account to a man called Nithin Joseph on April 4. The fraudsters also made transactions of Rs 2.04 lakh and Rs 1.74 lakh on Amazon the next day, reported the Hindustan Times.
The fraudsters then forced the victim to undergo a ‘narcotics test,’ coercing her to strip and pose on camera. The victim was allegedly threatened with arresting her and her family in a drug case. They later blackmailed her for sending Rs 10 lakh by 3 p.m. on April 5, failing which her video would be sold on the dark web, the victim alleged in her complaint.
