Senior citizen loses ₹6.7 lakh in sextortion scam

A day after the video-call conversation, the senior citizen got a call from a person Vikram Rathod, who claimed to be an officer from the Delhi Police Cyber Cell.

Mumbai. A 67-year-old man from Ghatkopar (east) has filed a police complaint alleging that he lost nearly ₹6.7 lakh to a group of people in a “sextortion” scam. The complainant, a senior citizen, has told the police that on the night of July 11, he received a WhatsApp message from an unidentified woman saying ‘hi’, to which he responded.

Rathod then demanded ₹5 lakh from the complainant for removing his video from the woman’s phone (Shutterstock)

She later induced him into a romantic conversation and asked him to go to the bathroom, the complainant said.

“After some time, the woman made a video call to him. The complainant took off his clothes on the instructions of the woman, who was also naked,” said a police officer.

A day after the video-call conversation, the senior citizen got a call from a person Vikram Rathod, who claimed to be an officer from the Delhi Police Cyber Cell.

Rathod told him that the woman had uploaded a video clip of their conversation on YouTube to defame him so that she could extort money. To get the video removed from YouTube, Rathod asked the complainant to contact a person, the police said.

When he contacted the said person, he demanded ₹57,500 to get the video removed from YouTube. After he paid the money via UPI, he received a screenshot acknowledging that the video was removed from YouTube.

Later Rathod demanded ₹50,000 from the complainant to get the woman arrested.

After the senior citizen paid the same, Rathod told him that when he (Rathod) had gone to arrest her, the woman committed suicide, and told him that since her mobile phone had the video in which the complainant was seen with her, he would land in trouble.

Rathod then demanded ₹5 lakh from the complainant for removing his video from the woman’s phone. He also informed him that another person from Gujarat also had a video conversation with the woman and they would implicate that man in the suicide abetment case, thus protecting the Ghatkopar resident from arrest and further criminal proceedings.

“When the complainant paid this amount in two instalments, Rathod demanded more money, claiming that he needs to pay compensation to the woman’s family members,” the FIR stated.

The complainant then realised that he was being duped and lodged a complaint with the police. By then he had already lost ₹6.7 lakh to the fraudsters, said the police officer.

The police have written to the concerned banks to get the details of the bank accounts in which the money was transferred by the complainant. Investigators have also written to the service providers to get the details of the phone numbers used in the crime.