‘Suicidal thoughts strike every day’: India’s sextortion scourge

Bikaner and Sidhi, India –Shyam, a truck driver in northern India’s city of Prayagraj, had not had sex with his pregnant wife for six months when he saw an advertisement on the Telegram messaging app promising to make his fantasies come true.

Shyam, 44, was impressed by the ad’s formal tone and eagerly followed a link to a pink-themed website, where he was asked to pay a registration fee of 4,000 Indian rupees ($48.28).Shyam made the payment at his local bank and returned home excitedly to access the website, only to be asked to pay an additional 6,000 rupees ($72.44) for every session of cyber-sex. He paid the sum and was told to wait for a video call during the next 24 hours.

A few hours later, Shyam received a video call from an unknown number. Removing his shirt, Shyam stood in front of his phone’s camera and answered. After a few seconds, a naked young woman touching herself appeared on the screen. Then the call was cut short.As Shyam tried to figure out what had happened, he received a WhatsApp message from the same number along with a recording of the video call. The message came with a threat: Deposit 15,000 rupees ($181) to this bank account within 24 hours or this video will go viral.

Shyam estimated it would take him 10-12 months to save up that amount with his monthly salary of 20,000 rupees ($241), which is barely enough to support his family of four.

“My finances were already running dry, so I had to use the money I was saving for my son’s tuition,” Shyam told Al Jazeera, speaking on the condition that he be referred to by a pseudonym.

“My relief was short-lived as the payment was followed by calls and SMS messages blackmailing me to deposit 30,000 rupees ($362.14), which I eventually did by borrowing from friends.”

Shyam is among the growing number of victims of online sextortion in India.Once a phenomenon associated with public figures in Bollywood and politics, such scams have become more prevalent across all sections of Indian society alongside the ubiquitous rise of smartphones and fast internet.

While statistics on online sextortion scams are not available, 52,974 cybercrimes were reported in India in 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), up from 44,735 cases in 2019.A total of 13,196 of those cases were registered under Section 67 of The Information Technology Act, 2000, which penalises the publication or distribution of obscene material in electronic form.

Many experts believe online sextortion is vastly underreported due to data-collection constraints and the social stigma of coming forward. – Al Jazeera

“The cases of this fraud saw a spike during the COVID-19 lockdowns as most people were confined at home working and got exposed to the internet more than ever before,” Rakshit Tandon, a cybersecurity expert based in Noida, told Al Jazeera.

“Internet penetration has also increased as smartphones and the internet reach lower-income groups.”

India has more than 932 million internet users, more than any other country apart from China, according to Statista. Statista estimates that figure will grow to more than 1.5 billion by 2040.People who are lonely or stuck in sexless relationships, young adults desperate to lose their virginity and older people with no outlet for desires are among those vulnerable to sextortion. People with poor digital literacy are considered especially at risk.

Scammers typically use fake personas to target their victims through social media, dating apps, spam text messages and online advertisements.The scam often begins with a friend request or message from a fake profile of an attractive female. Potential targets’ friends are also often contacted to use for the eventual blackmail. Before the scammers approach their target, their social media profile may be examined for evidence that they enjoy a flashy lifestyle.

Another common method involves posting links to scam websites and social media accounts under popular reels and videos on Instagram and Facebook, in Telegram groups, or on popular websites and forums. The scam websites often go to significant lengths to appear professional. In some cases, a pornographic video or sex worker is used to entice the person to perform sexual acts.

“The website pattern contributes to the formation of an authentic impression with a formal tone that is seen as professional,” Natwar, a 26-year-old admitted cyber-fraudster in Mewat, eastern Rajasthan, told Al Jazeera, asking to only be identified by his first name.

For would-be scammers in undeveloped regions such as Mewat, where the illiteracy rate is more than 30 percent, building an entire website can be difficult and time-consuming.Calling a target directly via WhatsApp or engaging them on social media is often more appealing.

“The chances of turning every attempt into a success are roughly the same in all techniques,” said Natwar, who has been arrested several times for cyber-fraud.

“Once we’re successful, we’ll make sure to save the naked photographs and screen record the video, which is blank from our end and lasts only six to 10 seconds, and cut the call.”