CHENNAI: Following a spike in online honey-trap cases, the city police’s cybercrime wing has formed special teams to track down culprits, who mostly work out of overseas destinations or hubs in other states.
In the past three months alone, more than three dozen complaints were received by the wing, an officer said, adding: “The victims are advised not to panic and they can immediately approach the cybercrime portal and report the incident to Toll-Free Helpline 1930 or register a complaint at www.cybercrime.gov.in.”
Often, it is an innocuous video call that ensnares an unsuspecting victim. For instance, Pushpakaran V, a private firm employee, responded to a Messenger call at home in Adambakkam. But, within seconds, a woman started stripping her dress. She then asked him to show his room around and demanded that he too undress like her, if he wished to continue the video chat. In panic, Pushpakaran disconnected the call. Yet, that one video call turned out to be a never-ending nightmare for the 35-year-old man.
Soon he started receiving random calls from unknown numbers and the person on the other end claimed to have recorded his nude video. The person also threatened to share the video with all his social media contacts if he did not transfer 50,000 by wire. He ended up shelling out 40,000. When the money demand increased, he mustered courage and lodged a police complaint.
There are many such cases of individuals falling for video calls on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Cybercrime police have warned people to be cautious while accepting video calls from unknown numbers, as scamsters are now using artificial intelligence-enabled tools to cheat people.
In the past three months alone, more than three dozen complaints were received by the wing, an officer said, adding: “The victims are advised not to panic and they can immediately approach the cybercrime portal and report the incident to Toll-Free Helpline 1930 or register a complaint at www.cybercrime.gov.in.”
Often, it is an innocuous video call that ensnares an unsuspecting victim. For instance, Pushpakaran V, a private firm employee, responded to a Messenger call at home in Adambakkam. But, within seconds, a woman started stripping her dress. She then asked him to show his room around and demanded that he too undress like her, if he wished to continue the video chat. In panic, Pushpakaran disconnected the call. Yet, that one video call turned out to be a never-ending nightmare for the 35-year-old man.
Soon he started receiving random calls from unknown numbers and the person on the other end claimed to have recorded his nude video. The person also threatened to share the video with all his social media contacts if he did not transfer 50,000 by wire. He ended up shelling out 40,000. When the money demand increased, he mustered courage and lodged a police complaint.
There are many such cases of individuals falling for video calls on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Cybercrime police have warned people to be cautious while accepting video calls from unknown numbers, as scamsters are now using artificial intelligence-enabled tools to cheat people.