Scammers attempt to extort money from porn watchers

HYDERABAD: Move over extortion, sextortion is the new buzzword in Hyderabad. Police says sextortion cases are on the rise what with scammers sending the victims the email passwords which were put up in public domain by hackers and trying to extort money and payments in bitcoins threatening that they have details of porn videos watched by the victims.

While Central Crime Station (CCS) cybercrime police received two specific complaints of sextortion, CID cybercrime recieved five such complaints. The modes operandi of the accused is to see that that the computer of the victim has been compromised and the webcam was used to record video while the victim is watching porn and later try to extort money. A new addition in their trick of the trade is that the fraudsters are giving reference of the leaked passwords of email operated by the victims.

CCS cybercrime police station additional deputy commissioner of police KCS Raghu Vir told TOI that they have received two complaints from victims in the last two weeks alone. “Some people watch porn on a mobile phone and desktop. Taking this as an advantage, the fraudster would send victims a mail saying they have the details of various porn sites visited by the victim and try to extort money. In our complaints, there is no password stealing issue. Both the victims did not pay the extortionists. They immediately complained to us,” he said.

The scammers can be booked under IT Act and for extortion under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

CID cybercrime superintendent of police U Ramamohan told TOI that victims are approaching then for help regarding the emails they received, blackmailing them of revealing details of the porn sites they had visited. “Four to five victims have approached us. We are helping them to approach the police station concerned,” he said.

The fraudsters are demanding payments in bitcoins. The sextortion email talks about the password and states that malware is placed on the porn website. The fraudsters also claim that they have got access to display screen and webcam and even other accounts of the messenger, Facebook and associated email IDs.

The fraudsters threaten that video of the victim recorded will be uploaded on the Internet and will be sent to all contacts. The cybercrime officials asked the public not to pay money and complained without deleting the contents.