A 75-year-old resident of Vasant Kunj, KN Joshi, became a victim of a sextortion scam and was cheated out of Rs 7.34 lakhs by cybercriminals. Joshi filed a complaint with the Delhi Police stating that he received a message from a woman named Anjali Sharma, who engaged him in an explicit video chat. Soon after, Joshi received a manipulated obscene video of himself and was threatened with its release on social media unless he paid Rs 61,000.
To add further pressure, one of the scammers impersonated former Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana. Joshi later received a call from an individual claiming to be Asthana, who provided information about the video call and shared the contact information of a person named Dhyaneshwar Bajirao. Joshi contacted Bajirao, who demanded money to delete the videos. Joshi paid Rs 64,500 in two installments but was continuously asked for more money on various pretexts.
The impersonator posing as Asthana introduced Joshi to a person claiming to be Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Ajay Kumar Ghagat. They demanded a bribe of Rs 2 lakhs from Joshi. Later, Joshi was informed that Anjali’s mother had committed suicide and was instructed to deposit Rs 4 lakhs into her account. Joshi ended up paying a total of Rs 7,34,500 over three different transactions.
Investigating police officers explained that fraudsters use pre-recorded explicit videos of women during video calls to deceive victims. They record victims’ actions and threaten to release the recordings unless a payment is made. In this case, the fraudsters also posed as a senior police officers to intimidate Joshi and demanded significant sums of money.
The police have initiated an investigation to apprehend the culprits involved in the sextortion scam and bring them to justice.