Fraudsters hack phone, blackmail woman using morphed photos

The police have come across a unique modus operandi used by cyber-fraudsters who have started sending WhatsApp links to unsuspecting people to lure them. Once the victim clicks on the link, the victim's mobile phone contact list and photographs stored in the gallery are stolen by the fraudsters who misuse the data to create obscene morphed photographs of the victim. The victim is then threatened to pay a ransom or else the morphed photos would be sent to everyone in their contact list.

The Bhandup police have initiated a probe in one such matter based on the complaint of a 29year-old housewife. According to the police, the complainant works at a private company. In her complaint on April 07, the woman stated that she had received a WhatsApp link on her phone and after clicking on it, her contact list and photographs in her phone gallery got stolen. “She then received messages in Hindi and English from an unknown number who asked her to pay up, else her photographs would be sent to her relatives to malign her image. The fraudster also sent the victim an image of her PAN card on which an obscene comment was written about the victim,” said a police officer.

According to the officer, after the complainant blocked the number she learned from her relatives that they had received obscene messages and photographs of her from an unknown

number. The victim continued to receive messages from the fraudster on her phone, following which she approached the police and got a criminal offence registered under sections 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) and 67A (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.

“We have been appealing to the citizens not to click any suspicious links or links sent from an unknown number as fraudsters

may use some malware to steal the victim's phone data and misuse it,” said the officer.

The complainant blocked the number and learned that her relatives had received obscene photographs