'Sextortion' cases on the rise in state: Police
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, May 26 2021: While informing that 'sextortion' cases, which are basically centred on demanding money by pretending to be lover on social media, have emerged in the state, Manipur police have appealed to people to remain alert from this type of cyber criminals.

A top official of Cyber Crime police station of Manipur police told The People's Chronicle that 'sextortion' is a new type of cyber-crime and the special police station has received complaints of 5/6 such cases so far.

These cyber criminals pretend to be friend by sending friend request on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp using photos of good-looking women and start chatting.

After chatting with the victim for some time, these cyber criminals will make video calls and conduct amoral act.

After recording the socially objectionable acts done in front of camera, these cyber criminals will call the victim after some time and demand money and even threaten to make viral the recorded sexual acts on social media if the victim fails to pay the money.

Explaining about steps to prevent cyber extortion, the police officer appealed to people to remain alert from friend request made from unknown people and never accept such proposal.

He further appealed to people not to chat with unknown people and never pay money when blackmailed but report the matter to cyber-crime police station or nearest police station instead.

Stop chatting immediately if suspected but never delete phone number and seek suggestion or advice from elders you trust most, the police officer suggested.

It would be hard for the police to deal with cyber extortion alone, the officer said and appealed to people not to fall into the trap of fake profile and name appeared in truecaller app.

Apart from sextortion, another complaint of cyber-crime is being reported.

In this new case, the criminal will try to borrow some money and assure repayment in short period by opening a fake account on social media using photos of the victim and his/her near and dear ones.

Cyber-crime police station has received 4/5 complaints about this new type of cyber-crime so far and these criminals normally target people of the North East, the police officer said.

Most of the messages in this type of case are written in either English or Hindi and request for borrowing between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 for a short period.

They will demand the money to be sent through online mode like Googlepay, the police officer said and appealed to people to confirm from their near and dear ones by calling directly if they happen to receive such messages and report to police by taking screenshot of the message.

Never pay money to these cyber criminals, the police officer reiterated.

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