Delhi Man Dupes Woman Of Rs 90,000 On Pretext Of Retrieving Blocked Instagram Account, Held

The accused allegedly used to search for Instagram accounts with a large number of followers and abusive content.

New Delhi: A 20-year-old man was arrested by the Delhi Police on Thursday for allegedly extorting Rs 90,000 from a woman under the guise of retrieving her blocked social media account, news agency PTI reported. The accused, Juned Beg, a Jamia Nagar resident, falsely reported her Instagram account as abusive and later promised to recover it in exchange for money, PTI quoted Delhi Police as saying. The woman had over eight lakh followers on her Instagram account.

"On March 29, a woman complained that her Instagram account with over eight lakh followers had been blocked, after which one Sam texted her on WhatsApp saying he could unblock her account," said M Harsha Vardhan, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka).

"The accused initially charged her Rs 10,000 and later demanded more money, threatening to delete her account, after which she transferred a total of Rs 80,000 to the various bank accounts provided by the fraudster, according to the officer," DCP added.

A case was registered at Dwarka cyber cell police station and during the investigation. A police team was able to track down the accused and recover a mobile phone from his possession, news agency IANS reported.

"During the investigation, the police traced the mobile number to Beg and arrested him from Zakir Nagar near Batla House," PTI quoted DCP Vardhan as saying.

The accused reportedly used to target Instagram accounts with a large number of followers and look for content that had abusive language. He would then report the account to Instagram and approach the account holder with the promise of unblocking the account for a sum of money.

The police have urged Instagram users to exercise caution and report any suspicious activity on their accounts immediately. They have also assured the public that they will continue to monitor such cases and take strict action against those involved in online extortion.

Social Media Extortion Cases On Rise

A 23-year-old man was arrested for allegedly trying to extort money from a woman here by threatening to post her morphed obscene pictures and videos on social media, police said on Thursday. The accused has been identified as Vishal Kumar, a resident of Loni in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, they said.

The victim alleged that a person started sending morphed obscene pictures and videos of her and demanded Rs 20,000 while threatening that he would post those pictures on social media, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Rohit Meena said

During interrogation, Kumar revealed that he saw the woman on social media and started liking her, however, he created a fake profile using the pictures of the victim and started threatening her, police said. Kumar was previously involved in four cases in Uttar Pradesh, two cases of Arms Act, one of robbery and another of Excise Act.