Maharashtra Cyber, which is the cyber crime and cyber security wing of Maharashtra police, has in the past released several advisories for internet users to avoid the case of sextortion. After reporting back to back suicide cases due to sextortion — online extortion where victims were threatened with circulation of their objectionable images — the Pune police has said that they are putting in place a standard operating procedure for speedy and effective investigation into such cases.
On September 28, a 19-year-old student pursuing a Commerce degree allegedly jumped to his death from a building in the Dattawadi area. In a similar incident on September 30, a 22-year-old Industrial Training Institute (ITI) student allegedly hanged himself to death. The probe into both these cases revealed that these young men were victims of sextortion. Both were threatened with circulation of their objectionable images on social media platforms and the cyber criminals extorted money from them.
Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta said, “We are seeing a pattern in these types of online extortion cases where cyber criminals threaten to circulate images and videos of the victims. Various social media and messenger platforms have been used for contact and further communication. Cyber criminals then seek money via online payment modes. We are in the process of formulating an SOP for speedy and effective investigation of such cases. The SOP will include what immediate steps are to be taken when such a case is reported, which online platforms to contact and other measures to make the probe airtight. The SOP will ensure that there are no delays in the response. It will soon be shared with all the police stations.”
Over the last couple of months, the Pune City Police have operationalised cyber crime probe teams at all 32 police stations in the city.
While the independent Cyber Crime Police station of Pune City will continue probing important cyber crime and cyber attack cases, dedicated teams at police stations will handle cases under specific heads earmarked for them. Currently. cases of sextortion are being probed normally by the police stations, officers said.
Maharashtra Cyber, which is the cyber crime and cyber security wing of Maharashtra police, has in the past released several advisories for internet users to avoid the case of sextortion. Speaking to The Indian Express, a senior officer from Maharashtra Cyber said, “While cases of sextortion were reported over the last few years, they saw a spike during the pandemic-induced lockdown when people
spent much more time on online platforms. Sextortion is primarily a practice in which money or sexual favours are extorted by threatening to reveal explicit images, vidoes or in some cases evidence of the victims’ sexual activity. While various online platforms are used, the modus operandi remains the same. The perpetrators gain
confidence and lure the victims into making video calls or sending images. In most cases, the video calls are recorded. The victims is then blackmailed by
the perpetrators into giving money, sexual favour and in some cases, inside information or sensitive data, of companies.”
The officer added, “The standard Dos and Don’ts of cyber safety apply to these cases as well. We have observed that sextortion is done through social media platforms, video sharing websites, dating websites, gaming platforms, messaging and photo sharing applications or a mix of these. There are cases where there is a history of long communication on social media. In some of the cases, it has been observed that in spite of paying the perpetrators, they circulated images of the victims online, mainly to people in the contact lists of the victims.”