WhatsApp Extortion Fraud with Morphed Imagery

I received a WhatsApp message today with some fabricated images and a lot of Facebook screenshots of some close friends and family members.

The scammers also posted images of morphed images modulated as a video being posted on YouTube and insinuated that they would splatter them everywhere.

The threat was to make these public, especially to the Facebook account images they sent to me. There is a singular objective of such messages - extort money. However, this was not meant to happen.

It seems that the mobile number was registered in the Indian state of Jharkhand to one Amit. The number was listed in Truecaller but with forged credentials.

It seems it’s a part of an extortionist network. The owner of the phone is deceased and yet his Aadhar card information was used to procure the mobile number.

Upon receiving the threat, I immediately rushed to the Gurgaon Cyber Police Cell in DLF Phase IV and with the assistance of the guard on duty managed to file a complaint. 

Next status update: Today around noon

My request is if any of you encounter these abusive and morphed images, please bring them to my notice and also file a complaint to the platform you encountered them on as well as the cyber cell.

This will allow the investigators date that’s needed to weed out such social irritants and safeguard unassuming and honest citizens.

This can happen to anyone, at anytime.

So! Be safe! Always ...