New Delhi: Scams on the internet have become commonplace. Nowadays, there are hundreds of ways for fraudsters to defraud you online. One of these methods is to use video calls to defraud people. Yes, you read that correctly; a scam involving video calls and blackmail is also fairly common.
According to earlier this year’s reports, people received video calls from random numbers, where fraudsters duped them and blackmailed them using screenshots and morphed images. Several such cases were reported earlier this year, with people being blackmailed into paying fraudsters as much as Rs 55,000.
The scammers send a video call from a woman to the victim. When the person answers the phone, they are greeted by a half-naked girl on a video call. If the victim responds in kind, the scammers will record videos or take screenshots and threaten to post them on social media. They demand that the victim pay a large sum of money in order to refrain from posting photos or videos.
Such scams are widespread on dating apps as well as other video calling services like WhatsApp. It increased during the initial COVID-19 wave. An incident from earlier this year involved a 30-year-old who paid Rs 55,000 for a random video call.
The most important thing you can do to protect yourself from these hacks is to never accept video calls from unknown numbers. Users have the option to modify their privacy settings and maintain the highest level of security. On any online platform, your phone number, other account IDs, and even your contacts list should be accessible to anyone.