Alwar Police Bust Sextortion Racket, 11 Arrested

New Delhi: With the arrest of 11 conmen, Alwar Police has busted an ‘extortion racket’ who were cheating people by recording their obscene video on WhatsApp and other messaging apps. The gang had cheated hundreds of people and made over Rs 80 lakh.

The gang was operational from Rajasthan’s Alwar and Bharatpur area. Police said that the accused were blackmailing people after contacting them over social media in the name of edited and morphed videos.

According to cyber investigators, the entire Mewat, Alwar, Bharatpur and Mathura region has evolved into cybercrime hub with most of the conmen involved in online extortion by making and recording nude video calls.

According to a senior police officer, the victims are approached through phoney accounts of attractive women on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

The victims are led to a video call via Messenger or WhatsApp after a brief talk. During the conversation, the victims were given an adult video clip while their video call was being filmed at the same time.

They receive extortion calls as soon as the video is recorded in the name of the offensive video created from the seized video chat. The demands ranged from two to thirty thousand rupees, and some of the victims gave in to the demands before reporting it to the police.

Several security agencies have advised people to be cautious before accepting a friend request on social media platforms from strangers or people whom you don’t know personally.

Upon detailed investigations, cops also found that the gang was involved in other crime of cyber crime as well. The gang was cheating buyers and sellers at online classified websites like OLX, Sulekha after posing as armymen.

Alwar police are trying to ascertain how many people were cheated by the gang and the money made by them. Initial investigation shows that the gang of 11 members must have made over Rs 89 lakh.