KOCHI: Life can turn upside down in a single video call. A Cherthala native working in Kochi learned it the hard way after attending a WhatsApp video call from an unknown number. He was blackmailed twice and cheated Rs 85,000 with the conmen threatening to post his obscene videos on various websites.
It all started on January 17 this year when the victim received a WhatsApp video call from an unknown number. During the video call, the victim’s face was recorded by the caller. Later, he received messages showing his morphed obscene videos.
The conmen blackmailed him saying that they will upload the videos on various websites if they are not paid. The victim agreed to pay fearing that his reputation will be tarnished by the video and transferred Rs 54,000 to the accounts given by the unidentified accused person, a police officer said. The victim’s ordeal did not end after paying the first tranche of money. He received another call on January 19.
This time the caller claimed that he was from the Crime Branch of Delhi police. “The caller said that Delhi Police have come to know that his obscene videos are uploaded on Facebook. He shared some of these videos with the victim. The victim was shattered to know that his videos are being circulated on Facebook and sought help from the bogus cop,” a police official said.
“The police officer asked Rs 31000 for removing videos from Facebook. The victim agreed and paid the money. Later the victim realised that there was no such Facebook account and his videos were not uploaded to the social media,” a police official said. Finally, the victim realised that he was being cheated and approached the police. The police registered a case under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 506 (criminal intimidation), and IT Act section 66D (cheating using computer resources or communication devices).
The police said there are many incidents in which fraudsters create morphed videos after making WhatsApp video call. “These incidents are taking place despite our campaign against attending WhatsApp video calls from unknown numbers. Attempts are made for tracing the numbers used by the fraudsters in this case. In most cases, the fraudsters keep on changing numbers to prevent being traced by police or other investigation agencies,” a police officer said.