Sextortion: New way of Rajasthan conmen to trap victims

JAIPUR: Blackmailing and extortion of Shiv Sena’s MLA from Kurla assembly seat of Mumbai by a conman from Sikari police station area of Bharatpur a few months ago is not an isolated case.
From cheating and extortion of people through promise to sell items in cheaper rates on OLX, the criminals of Mewat region have now changed their modus operandi and several people across the country fell prey to their tactics.
Now, they invite people randomly for intimate talks and even allure them to send their semi-naked videos by posing as women on the social networking platforms. After victims fell prey, they start blackmailing them.
TOI on Friday spoke to police officers in Bharatpur to know details related to the activities of conmen in areas like Kaithwada, Nagar, Sikari, Khoh, Jurhera, Pahadi and Kaman.
“We have facilitated police of various states, including Telangana, Maharashtra, Andra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and others, who came to arrest these conmen. Earlier, they were into cheating and extortion of people through selling items in cheaper prices. Now, they are also into this kind of extortion,” said Devendra Bishnoi, superintendent of police, Bharatpur.
Elaborating more on the modus operandi, Bishnoi, said, “They will first send you a friend request on social media by posing as woman. Thereafter, they will start chatting and lure the person to start intimate talks. After that they will first send some vulgar videos and ask people to send any semi-naked or even a naked video. That’s how a person fell prey and sends the video. Thereafter, the conman will pose as a police officer and ask for money and will threaten if the money won’t be paid, they will make the video public.”
“We call it sextortion which is extortion through talking about sex,” he added.
Bishnoi added that more than 100 cases were registered in various police stations, including Kaithwada, Nagar, Sikari, Khoh, Jurhedra , Pahadi and Kaman which also included extortion through selling stuff on OLX.
“We have sign boards in Bharatpur and other areas asking and urging people not to get allure with the OLX advertisements promising things on cheaper prices. Also, we have been issuing appeals to the public not to get indulge into social media to an extent that without knowing somebody you start approving the friend request and later get into intimate talks,” Bishnoi added.
Senior police officers investigating various such cases stated that these conmen first visit the profiles of people on the social media and after noticing that a person is an IT engineer, manager and have good social profile, they start sending these friend requests.