Bengaluru: A 20-year-old cricketer from Maharashtra participating in a tournament here unwittingly walked into a cyber honeytrap, with the woman recording their private call and trying to extort money from the budding player.According to a complaint from the cricketer, he was lodged in a five-star hotel in north Bengaluru during the tournament organised by BCCI. On the night of July 17, he received a message on his dating app profile from a woman, Rashika. After exchanging a few messages, she asked him to switch to WhatsApp on 8426051159.A little later, the woman allegedly suggested a WhatsApp video call. During the call, she reportedly undressed and behaved in a provocative manner. The victim willingly reciprocated by shedding his clothes. After a few minutes, the call got disconnected, he told police.When he called her later, the woman told him she had recorded the entire video call without his knowledge. Soon, the woman threatened to release the video on social media if he didn’t pay up. He transferred Rs 1,500 immediately. However, she continued demanding more money and intensified the threats until the next afternoon.Realising he would be in deep trouble, the boy shared his plight with his friends and soon realised he had fallen victim to a sextortion racket. A case has been for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form, extortion and cheating under IT Act and BNS against the cyber fraudster, who is at large.Do not entertain calls from strangers, says DCPDeputy commissioner of police (Crime-2) Raja Imam Kasim P said: “Cyber crooks are increasingly using AI-generated videos with synthetic voices to make victims believe they are speaking to a real woman. Once they record the target in a compromising situation, they use the footage to blackmail and extort money. People should never give in to such demands. Instead, they should firmly refuse, tell the caller that they are reporting the matter to the police, and stop all communication. These fraudsters may make one or two attempts, but if they realise the victim won’t pay, they usually move on to target other gullible people.”“Do not entertain video calls from strangers. If you accidentally answer one, immediately switch your phone’s camera from the front to the rear so that your face is not captured. If your image or video has been recorded in a compromising situation, report it immediately through the https://stopncii.org platform. If the content has been uploaded online, the platform can help remove it,” he added.BCCI had recently issued an advisory to the players against the honey traps and sextortion and tightened the hotel rooms access, another officer said.IMAGES MORPHED FOR MONEYA 42-year-old businessman lost Rs 10 lakh after he attended a WhatsApp video call. Though he disconnected the call after seeing a woman expose herself, his face was morphed with explicit images. He was extorted under the guise of Delhi PoliceA 29-year-old techie lost Rs 1 lakh to sextortion. Woman with fake profile on a dating app claimed she had gone through a breakup and spoke to him on WhatsApp. During a video call, his face was recorded, and morphed explicit images were created to blackmail him.
