New Delhi: A new phishing wave has come to light that starts with a simple friend request on Instagram. The user is allegedly targetted by scamsters sending morphed photos to extort money.
According to a report in The Indian Express, the friend request would be followed by a video call, and then the users would get photos in which their faces would be superimposed with naked bodies. The targets of this highly sophisticated cyber fraud would then have to shell out lakhs of rupees to protect their reputation.
Quoting the police, the report said such phishing attacks were increasingly becoming common, and behind this is a “gang of scamsters” allegedly operating from places such as Bharatpur (Rajasthan), Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and Mewat (Haryana).
The Agra Cyber Police arrested three persons from Mewat on July 4 for their alleged involvement in various types of cybercrime, and the police believe they are also part of the gang, the report said, adding that these three men were into making “nude video calls to blackmail people” among other offences.
The police also said the region is becoming the ‘New Jamtara’, the Jharkhand area notorious as a hub for digital frauds.
The Case Of Delhi Man
The report mentions the case of one Rohan Bhasin, who works with a Delhi-based social media marketing firm in a senior position. While the 33-year-old didn’t lose any money, his case gives an idea about the modus operandi of the gang.
Bhasin allegedly got a friend request from a woman on Instagram on July 2, and he accepted it “since she was also friends with others” on his ‘following’ list.
According to the IE report, the woman then sent him direct messages, “asking for his WhatsApp number”. While Bhasin didn’t oblige, he soon started getting video calls from her on Instagram, he alleged.
Once he answered, he found “a naked woman performing obscene acts” on the screen. After he disconnected the call, Bhasin allegedly started getting messages that were threatening to share his video.
He didn’t “give in to their tactics”, but soon started receiving calls from family and friends about a ‘video’ in which he appeared to be having a “sex chat”.
“The scamsters had taken a picture of my face from the video call...and superimposed it on someone else’s body,” Bhasin told The Indian Express.
He then approached the Delhi Police with a written complaint, along with screenshots of his chats.
Quoting cyber expert Rakshit Tandon, the report said all social media users are advised to never answer a video call from unknown persons.