Caught in the Web: Greed, lust and extortion

Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.

-R Buckminster Fuller (Inventor and Author)

As much as technology is meant to bring people together and improve our lives, it is also intrusive. It is a window into our intimate world, with easy access for any stranger to see and observe. A phone number often gives away personal details about whom the person is interacting with, the location of the person, their bank balance, and so on. Just like in times of crisis, when one can call someone in an instant, one can similarly pick up the phone and start a conversation with a stranger without the usual inhibitions that one experiences when meeting in person.

A stranger calls on the phone using some pretext and starts talking. Sometimes they can pretend to be someone else or lure you with irresistible offers. There are dating sites and services like sex chats that are often honey traps or part of trafficking rackets. Hence, technology like mobile phones, internet calls, and video calls has ushered in a new set of problems, threats, and risks. Incursions into intimate spaces lead to blackmailing and extortion. Apart from financial losses, it leads to mental trauma, often forcing the victims to take their own lives. Most are scared to lose their social standing among their family and friends because of the act of shame.

Read | 1,500 cyber crime incidents on avg reported daily, only 2% converted into FIRs

Sextortion and honey traps are increasing at an alarming rate. Technology like video calls, recordings, and photo morphing is easily available and has made crime easy. Social media is used to trap victims and also threaten them. The victims are both men and women, as are the perpetrators. The modus operandi is simple. For instance, a WhatsApp video call is made, and the victim receives it. Upon answering the call, the victim is usually shown a video of a naked woman or any other obscenity or objectionable video, and through screen recording, the victim watching it is recorded. Thereafter, he is threatened that the video of him watching will be made public through social media. Once he falls into the trap, he is blackmailed for money. Concerned about shame, victims hesitate to report such crimes and keep paying the blackmailer. Either they run out of money and then file a police complaint, or they end up killing themselves. Sextortion leads to death, debt, and devastated families.

Similarly, dating sites or Facebook friend requests also lead to such untoward incidents. There have been cases where girls have sent a friend request and gotten the male friend to strip on video and indulge in inappropriate behaviour while recording it without the person’s knowledge. Later, they blackmailed the person threatening to leak the videos on social media. Similarly, women have also walked into such traps. The difference is that male victims end up paying the blackmailer, while female victims are forced into sex. The gendered impact of crime is stark.

There have also been instances where someone has recorded videos of women in their bathrooms and then asked for sexual favours to stop the videos from being leaked on social media. Knowing that it is difficult for any victim to show the videos to register a police complaint or even narrate the incident, the perpetrators take advantage and run amok, minting money and/or taking sexual favours while decimating the victims.

Almost every day, Bengaluru city police come across cases where people have fallen prey to such sextortion rackets. Victims have been blackmailed for sums ranging from a few thousand dollars to several lakhs of dollars.This sum does not account for the mental anguish, emotional distress, and physical scarring that victims endure.

Prevention

Do not answer video calls from unknown numbers
Do not chat online with unknown people
Do not accept friend requests from unknown people on social media.

Redressal

Inform the police as soon as you receive the first call of extortion
Do not delete any call records
Do not delete the video or any other evidence.

The only way to tackle crime is by reporting it to the police. Time is a crucial factor, as are the details of the crime, when lodging a complaint. It is crucial to report the crime as soon as it happens so that the number can be traced and located. The evidence is important for both the investigation and the prosecution. The videos need to be saved, even though they might make the victim uncomfortable, as do the incoming call records like phone numbers, dates, and times of the call, and the threat messages. All this information is crucial when registering the complaint. Do not give in to extortion. Please do not shy away from reporting to the police. Reporting the crime can be a deterrent and prevent such crimes that cause death, debt, and devastated families.

(The writer is the Deputy Commissioner of Police, S-E division of Bengaluru.)