SoBo international school principal latest victim of sextortion

Mumbai: A 52-year-old Canadian national, working as the principal of a Fort-based international school, is the latest victim of a sextortion racket, wherein cyber fraudsters clandestinely record intimate videos of the targeted person and then blackmail them by threatening to make the clips public

Mumbai: A 52-year-old Canadian national, working as the principal of a Fort-based international school, is the latest victim of a sextortion racket, wherein cyber fraudsters clandestinely record intimate videos of the targeted person and then blackmail them by threatening to make the clips public.

HT Image

The west region cyber police station has registered an offence based on the principal’s complaint and started the probe.

Cyber police sources said that the complainant was befriended by a woman, identified as Pallaya Gavilyn, on Facebook a few weeks ago. Soon after this, the two started chatting over Facebook messenger and also shared their WhatsApp mobile numbers.

“After days of exchanging chats, one day, the woman insisted on an intimate video call with the principal. He agreed and had an intimate video conversation with the lady,” said a police officer. A day later, the principal received an email on his official email address claiming that a sender had broken into his computer and had copied all his private information, contents on his mobile device, his browsing history, etc., and demanded money in Bitcoins by threatening to share his private stuff on social media.

The private content also included the recording of the principal’s intimate video call with his Facebook friend, clandestinely recorded by the woman, a police officer said.

The principal then discovered that Gavilyn was a member of a cyber fraud group and her group member had used the personal details that he shared with her during the chatting to attack his computer, said the police officer.

The complainant paid some money to the fraudsters, but the cyber police did not reveal the quantum of the money extorted from him. Cyber police have the mandate of probing cases involving amounts of ₹10 lakh or more.

The west region cyber police officials have written to the email service provider and Facebook seeking details of accounts used in the commission of the crime.