Hyderabad: A 23-year-old techie from Narsingi lost ₹9.2 lakh to blackmailers in an online sextortion racket. Following his complaint, Cyberabad cybercrime police registered a criminal case.The victim received a WhatsApp video call from an unknown number on July 3. “An unknown woman caller suddenly started undressing and urged me to do the same. The call lasted barely 15 seconds,” the complainant said.Shortly after the call ended, an unknown man called from the same number and shared an edited clip of the video call with the victim. He threatened to circulate the clip among the victim’s friends and even sent it to his sister on Instagram.However, the accused deleted the clip sent to the victim’s sister after receiving ₹82,000. Subsequently, he continued demanding more money to remove the clip from the victim’s phone and other locations. He also took money to delete chat messages exchanged with the victim. Between July 3 and 7, the victim paid ₹9.2 lakh to the fraudster.The victim later lodged a complaint with the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and approached Cyberabad cybercrime police on July 8. A case was registered under Sections 308(2) (extortion) and 318(4) (cheating) of the BNS and Section 66-D of the Information Technology Act.
