MUMBAI: An elderly man from Andheri became the victim in a sextortion case recently after he accepted the friendship request of a stranger on social media. The 57-year-old victim was shot in the nude by cyberfraudsters who demanded money against the video clip. When he did not pay up, the video was uploaded online to defame him. Andheri police have registered a case of extortion and defamation and are looking for the culprits.
According to the victim's complaint, he had received a friendship request on Facebook from a woman on June 23. He accepted the request though he did not know her. The woman's profile said her name was Riya Verma. Soon after, she sent him a message on Facebook Messenger asking for his contact number. Not suspecting anything, he replied that both his phone numbers were already mentioned on his Facebook profile.
On June 26, the complainant had gone for a bath when his phone rang. He asked his grandson to pass him the handset into the bathroom, presuming it would be an important call. "It was a WhatsApp video call. When I answered the call, a woman appeared on screen in the nude. I was baffled and disconnected the line. Thereafter, the caller dialled repeatedly but I did not answer," the complainant said in his statement. The same evening, he received a call from another number. The man on the other end said he had shot a nude video of the complainant and he should pay up to Rs 50000 if he wanted the video to be deleted.
The complainant asked the man to send him the video for confirmation. On June 27, the complainant received a video clip that had been shot while he had been in the bath and had answered the woman's WhatsApp video call. The complainant alleged that his face was morphed in the clip. When the caller called back demanding money, the complainant told him he did not have so much cash. At this, the caller negotiated to Rs 21999 and asked him to make a bank transfer. The complainant kept delaying and failed to make the payement. Subsequently, the complainant received a phone call from his friend about his nude video appearing on Facebook. The complainant, on July 3, approached the Andheri police to lodge a complaint. No arrest has been made so far.
