Maharashtra Police: Rise in cybercrime amid lockdown; extortionists targeting porn site visitors

Since the government announced the nationwide lockdown to prevent the outspread of novel coronavirus there is a sharp rise in cybercrime. Maharashtra Police said that they have observed an increasing trend of cyber fraudsters. They are particularly targeting and sending email to those vising porn sites.

As per reports, the cyber wing of the state observed that extortionists are sending emails to those visiting adult websites and are asking them to make the payment in the bitcoins. And if they failed to pay them then they will public their video of using porn websites.

As per Superintendent of Police, Balsing Rajput, Maharashtra Cyber said that the extortionists have placed some malware on porn sites. So when someone accesses it they are able to breach the data of that person. They access the visitor’s display screen i.e. desktop or the mobile phone and steals the contact numbers of the visitor’s friends, their contact on social media and emails.

After getting all the information, extortionists then starts sending email to the victim and starts blackmailing them that the person has been captured on the webcam viewing porn sites and if they fail to pay they will leak the video.

An official further added, "In one such mail to a user, the fraudster demanded $2900 and threatened that if he failed to pay it, then his video, which was created using his webcam, will be sent to his friends, relatives and colleagues."

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