Chennai: Online fraudsters honey trap strangers through video calls on social media to extort money
CHENNAI: Two years ago, Raju* from T Nagar got a number from makemefriends.com, a website claiming to provide ‘escort services’ for men in the city. After the sign-up, Raju received a video call from a woman who appeared naked on the other end. This woman told Raju to imitate her moves naked; this Raju did.
“A few minutes after the call ended, he received a video of his nude call, followed by threats that if he did not pay the fraudsters, this video would be posted on social media tagging his friends,” said a city police officer, who added that there had been several complaints against the website in connection with extortion. Raju ended up sending them Rs 17 lakh over a period of two years; it was only recently that he finally decided to lodge a complaint with the cyber cell.
Raju’s case is not an isolated one; many men in the city have fallen for such online frauds, losing money, name, and peace of mind. Fraudsters employ various tactics to honey trap and force them to part with money. The cases of Senthil* and Navneeth* are examples.
Senthil, a married man with two children, got matched with a woman on a dating app about a year ago. They exchanged many messages. “The man was excited after she called him and started sweet-talking. But the woman, who claimed to live in another city, made excuses whenever he asked her if they could meet,” said a senior police officer.
One day, she called Senthil and asked him for money, claiming she was going through a financial struggle. Senthil sent over Rs 2 lakh over a period of a few months. He realised he was conned only after she blocked his number. Senthil has lodged a complaint with cyber cell in Chennai.
As for Navneeth*, he got a friend request from a woman’s profile on a social medium. The purported woman claimed that she was in the UK. A month and many messages later, the woman told him that she was coming to visit him.
“A few days later, however, the woman texted Navneeth claiming that she was out of money. She asked money for tickets, visa, luggage charges, and duty. In all, Navneeth spent over Rs 5 lakh,” said a police officer. Navneeth grew suspicious when the woman kept asking for more money. When he finally confronted her and demanded to see photos of the flight tickets, she went offline and the account was deleted. Realising he had been conned, Navneeth lodged a complaint with the cyber cell.
A college student and a doctor in the city said in their complaints that they received friend requests on Facebook from women profiles. As soon as they accepted the requests, persons on the other end started texting and shared their phone numbers.
“The men were honey trapped. A few minutes after they shared their numbers, they received a video call on WhatsApp,” a senior police officer said. They too fell for the same trick that trapped Raju.
Though the college student reported the woman’s profile on Facebook and blocked her number, the fraudsters shared his video with a few of his Facebook friends, including his mother.
*Names changed