The caller threatened to upload the wife’s edited photo on an adult website along with the youth’s mobile number. A 27-year-old man who contacted what appeared to be an escort service to enquire about the rates for massages was allegedly abused by an individual who also threatened to upload a photo of his wife on an adult website, before extorting Rs 1,000 from the victim, the police said. When the extortion continued even after he paid the money, the man approached Juhu police and an FIR was registered on April 9, they added.
According to the FIR, the complainant told the police that he was staying at a luxury hotel in Juhu and was browsing the internet looking for spas in the area when he came across a website with the link that said, ‘Looking for escorts’. Soon after, a person called the complainant on his mobile phone and sent photographs of a few women along with their rates, the complainant said.
Sensing something amiss in the conversation, the complainant blocked the number, but the same evening he received a phone call from a man who sent him a photo of the complainant with his wife, which was his WhatsApp display picture, the FIR said. The caller threatened to upload the wife’s edited photo on an adult website along with the youth’s mobile number, he added.
Soon, multiple calls and abusive texts followed, demanding money from the complainant who eventually sent Rs 1,000; but the threat calls continued, forcing the man to approach the police, he said.
The police said the FIR was registered under sections 384 (extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66 C (identity theft) and 66 D (cheating by impersonation using computer resource) of the IT Act.
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