Recently, the number of cases of people stripping on video calls or sharing nude pictures, either morphed or real, is on a rise. A perfect terminology for these cases is “sextortion”.
In simple words, blackmailers share sensitive pictures or videos and then blackmail them for money. We can also say real-life Jamtara cases. For those who aren’t aware, Jamtara is a new Netflix original series based on a true crime story. In the series, two cousins along with their friends carry out a successful phishing scam in Jamtara, a remote village located in Jharkhand.
A Look At Statistics
According to police officials, sextortion is a kind of criminal activity through which a criminal extort money or make sexual demands by sharing private details and morphed or real photos and videos of the victims and blackmailing them.
For these cases, FIRs (first information report) are booked under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and other sections of the Information Technology Act. Both the sections combined result in a punishment of either 7 or 5 years.
As per the police data, in 2021, 409 complaints related to sextortion were made, but FIR was registered for only 24 cases. This year, till August 31st, 1,469 complaints were made and only 44 FIRs were registered.
A reason why these cases are on the rise is that, in January 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs launched the National Cyber Crime Portal through which reporting such cases became easier for victims. Earlier there used to be a stigma attached to reporting such cases because they had to deal with police officials face to face which isn’t the case in the portal.
Stories Shared By People
A 24-year-old software engineer, Ajit (name changed) decided to give dating apps a chance and that’s when he met a girl. After a few days of interaction on the application itself, both of them shared their WhatsApp numbers.
A day after exchanging the number, Ajit received a video call from the girl. He picked up the call and to his surprise, he saw the woman on the call stripping her clothes.
Though Ajit cut the call immediately, the girl recorded and edited the video in a way that showed that Ajit was enjoying the call and used the video to blackmail him for an amount of Rs. 2,000.
Afraid Ajit decided to pay Rs. 1000 to her, however, the girl continued to blackmail him. Later, on his friend’s advice, he decided to block her.
Another incident was shared by Ravi (name changed). He met a saree vendor on Facebook and the vendor said that she’ll show him sarees on video call so that he could choose wisely. So, both of them exchanged numbers.
However, on the video call, the saree vendor stood naked and screen-recorded the call. Later, she blackmailed Ravi for making the video public and asked for Rs. 8,000. Initially, Ravi gave her Rs. 6,000 thinking that the woman would stop. But, she continued blackmailing him and then, Ravi decided that he will report the case to Halasuru Gate Cyber Crime Station.
Also Read: My Private Messages Were Leaked To A Group Without My Consent And This Is A Cyber Crime To Me
A civil service aspirant, Avinash from Bengaluru started talking to a stranger on Facebook, Neha Sharma. A few days later, he received a video call from her on the application itself and became a victim of sextortion.
The girl was joined by other people and all of them scammed Avinash and demanded Rs. 36,000 from him. The scammers increased the amount every time and this forced Avinash to end his life.
How To Prevent Sextortion?
One of the common things in all the above-mentioned cases is that all the victims were blackmailed by strangers. Hence, one simple rule to follow on social media applications is to be very mindful of whom you become friends with.
Never fall for strangers as soon as you meet them. They tend to be friendly and force you to exchange numbers, however, you have to be careful and not settle for such things soon after meeting.
Also, on dating apps, there are various features using which you can protect your identity and your personal details. Learn about the application before using the service, read the reviews before joining the application, and try not to be friendly in the first few interactions.
Another thing through which you can prevent sextortion is don’t post a lot of your personal information on these applications because the criminals might keep a record of your activities.
Never ever click on files or links from unknown people. These can be harmful and expose sensitive information. Other than this, make sure to cover your webcam.
This way even if by mistake you pick up an unknown video call, your image will not be exposed as your camera would be covered. You can easily get webcam covers on any e-commerce platform for both, personal computers and smartphones.
It is always said, precautions are better. In the world of digital media, where one interacts with millions of users every now and then, being concerned about one’s safety and privacy is very important.
Cases of sextortion can be harmful to your mental health even if you report the case and get the criminals punished. Hence, always be mindful of what all you do in the virtual world.
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: The News Minute, Hindustan Times, VPN Overview
Find the blogger: Palak Dogra
This post is tagged under: sextortion, cyber crime, cyber criminals, phishing scam, video calls, online stripping, scammers, scams, scamming
Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.
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