IPS probationer falls prey to sextortion\'

Hyderabad: An IPS probationer of the 75 RR batch undergoing training at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) in the city became a victim of sextortion. The officer, who received a nude WhatsApp video call from an unknown person with her face masked, disconnected the call. But the caller started harassing him, demanding him for money.

The caller also threatened to circulate the clip of the video call on social media platforms and also shared it to the officer’s social media contacts. When he ignored repeated calls, the caller sent him a screenshot of his Instagram contacts and threatened to share the recorded clip to the contacts and demanded money from him.

Later, when the officer blocked the caller, he received calls and videos from other numbers, demanding him money to not share the video clip to his friends. The caller then sent screenshots to the officer, indicating that she had shared the video clip to his Facebook contacts.

The officer immediately deactivated all his social media accounts and reported the matter to the Cyber Crime wing of Cyberabad police, who started a probe.

Investigators said that users should not answer calls to avoid falling victims to such scamsters, particularly video calls from unknown numbers, even if the calling numbers are of Indian origin. Further, never click on links from unknown numbers, which could infest one’s device with malware and steal personal credentials and important data.