Bikaner and Sidhi, India – Shyam, a truck driver in northern India’s metropolis of Prayagraj, had not had intercourse along with his pregnant spouse for six months when he noticed an commercial on the Telegram messaging app promising to make his fantasies come true.

Shyam, 44, was impressed by the advert’s formal tone and eagerly adopted a hyperlink to a pink-themed web site, the place he was requested to pay a registration price of 4,000 Indian rupees ($48.28).

Shyam made the cost at his native financial institution and returned residence excitedly to entry the web site, solely to be requested to pay a further 6,000 rupees ($72.44) for each session of cyber-sex. He paid the sum and was informed to attend for a video name throughout the subsequent 24 hours.

Just a few hours later, Shyam obtained a video name from an unknown quantity. Removing his shirt, Shyam stood in entrance of his cellphone’s digital camera and answered. After a number of seconds, a unadorned younger lady touching herself appeared on the display. Then the decision was reduce brief.

As Shyam tried to determine what had occurred, he obtained a WhatsApp message from the identical quantity together with a recording of the video name. The message got here with a menace: Deposit 15,000 rupees ($181) to this checking account inside 24 hours or this video will go viral.

Shyam estimated it might take him 10-12 months to avoid wasting up that quantity along with his month-to-month wage of 20,000 rupees ($241), which is barely sufficient to assist his household of 4.

“My finances were already running dry, so I had to use the money I was saving for my son’s tuition,” Shyam informed Al Jazeera, talking on the situation that he be referred to by a pseudonym.

“My relief was short-lived as the payment was followed by calls and SMS messages blackmailing me to deposit 30,000 rupees ($362.14), which I eventually did by borrowing from friends.”

Shyam is among the many rising variety of victims of on-line sextortion in India.

Once a phenomenon related to public figures in Bollywood and politics, such scams have turn into extra prevalent throughout all sections of Indian society alongside the ever present rise of smartphones and quick web.

While statistics on on-line sextortion scams will not be obtainable, 52,974 cybercrimes had been reported in India in 2021, based on the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), up from 44,735 instances in 2019.

A complete of 13,196 of these instances had been registered below Section 67 of The Information Technology Act, 2000, which penalises the publication or distribution of obscene materials in digital kind.

Many specialists imagine on-line sextortion is vastly underreported as a result of data-collection constraints and the social stigma of coming ahead.

“The cases of this fraud saw a spike during the COVID-19 lockdowns as most people were confined at home working and got exposed to the internet more than ever before,” Rakshit Tandon, a cybersecurity skilled based mostly in Noida, informed Al Jazeera.

“Internet penetration has also increased as smartphones and the internet reach lower-income groups.”

India has greater than 932 million web customers, greater than every other nation aside from China, based on Statista. Statista estimates that determine will develop to greater than 1.5 billion by 2040.

People who’re lonely or caught in sexless relationships, younger adults determined to lose their virginity and older folks with no outlet for wishes are amongst these weak to sextortion. People with poor digital literacy are thought of particularly in danger.

Scammers sometimes use pretend personas to focus on their victims by social media, courting apps, spam textual content messages and on-line ads.

The rip-off usually begins with a buddy request or message from a pretend profile of a beautiful feminine. Potential targets’ buddies are additionally usually contacted to make use of for the eventual blackmail. Before the scammers method their goal, their social media profile could also be examined for proof that they get pleasure from a flashy life-style.

Another frequent methodology entails posting hyperlinks to rip-off web sites and social media accounts below widespread reels and movies on Instagram and Facebook, in Telegram teams, or on widespread web sites and boards. The rip-off web sites usually go to vital lengths to seem skilled. In some instances, a pornographic video or intercourse employee is used to entice the individual to carry out sexual acts.

“The website pattern contributes to the formation of an authentic impression with a formal tone that is seen as professional,” Natwar, a 26-year-old admitted cyber-fraudster in Mewat, jap Rajasthan, informed Al Jazeera, asking to solely be recognized by his first identify.

For would-be scammers in undeveloped areas similar to Mewat, the place the illiteracy charge is greater than 30 p.c, constructing a complete web site could be tough and time-consuming.

Calling a goal straight by way of WhatsApp or participating them on social media is commonly extra interesting.

“The chances of turning every attempt into a success are roughly the same in all techniques,” mentioned Natwar, who has been arrested a number of occasions for cyber-fraud.

“Once we’re successful, we’ll make sure to save the naked photographs and screen record the video, which is blank from our end and lasts only six to 10 seconds, and cut the call.”

According to a study by Sophos, a cybersecurity firm in the United Kingdom, almost half a million US dollars in profits were generated by sextortion spam messages between September 1, 2019, and January 31, 2020, alone. India was identified as the source of 3.73 percent of the messages, more than any country apart from Vietnam, Brazil, Argentina and South Korea.

Some scammers have been known to impersonate the police to extract money from their victims.

Ajay, a plumber in Nagaur, Rajasthan who earns 10,000-15,000 Indian rupees ($120-181) per month, said a person identifying himself as a member of the Indian Police Service (IPS) threatened to prosecute him for paying for sex after he was blackmailed out of 60,000 rupees ($724.48) in a sextortion scam on Facebook.

“On the second day, I blocked the scammer’s number but after a few hours, I received a call from an unknown number identified as ‘Shyam IPS’ on Truecaller, a caller identification application,” Ajay told Al Jazeera, speaking on the condition he would not be identified by his real name.

Ajay said the person posing as a police officer told him to “negotiate” with the extortionist or face up to four years in prison for buying sexual services. Ajay blocked the number after consulting with a counsellor from a local non-governmental organisation (NGO).

The effect of sextortion on victims isn’t limited to their finances.

In a society where sex is shrouded in taboos, victims’ mental health can suffer, too.

Shyam, the truck driver in Prayagraj, said he has not had a peaceful night’s sleep since he was scammed early this month. Not only does he fear that his sextortion video will be circulated, he feels guilty for seeking sexual gratification outside his marriage during his wife’s pregnancy.

“Suicidal thoughts strike every day,” he said. “I even tried to end my life once but failed the minute the thought of my kid arose. My income wasn’t sufficient even for us and now with this debt and the mental torment, life is becoming hell. This is something that I can’t even share with anyone”.

‘Psychological game’

Mukesh Choudhary, a cybercrime consultant for the Jaipur Police, said scammers take advantage of victims’ exaggerated fears as well as their ignorance of India’s cyberlaws, which allow authorities to remove obscene material from the Internet.

“The fear of video dissemination is a psychological game because the videos are very rarely posted online because if they do, they could be punished under Section 67 of The Information Technology Act, 2000, which penalises publishing or distributing obscene material in electronic form. It could be deleted if they do,” Choudhary said.

“These aren’t the private videos of a famous person, nor do they have a YouTube channel with millions of subscribers for making them viral. Using stigma, fear, and misinformation, they play with the victim’s mind.”

Fearing stigma, many victims prefer to seek help from NGOs instead of the police as it allows them to communicate over the phone and keep their identity private.

“Most victims come to us with a fabricated story and say they don’t want to go to the police because they don’t want to be defamed,” Milind Agarwal, president of India’s first cybercrime NGO, Cyber Crime Awareness Society, told Al Jazeera.

“First, we convince them the footage won’t be posted online. Second, we ask that they block them for the next two to three days and don’t answer unknown calls or messages. They must report any contact with outsiders. They’ll follow up for two to three days and then stop. “This strategy has worked in every case.”

Charges are brought in only about one-third of reported cybercrime cases, according to NCRB data. Some experts believe police apathy and a lack of properly-trained and forensic resources are key factors in the low prosecution rate.

“If you are an ordinary man, police won’t register your complaint if it is merely a threat and until the video has been posted online,” Agarwal said.

“The approach appears to be the inverse for influential figures.”

While cybercrime is rapidly evolving due to advances in technology, the related law is nearly 20 years old and has only been amended once.

“Because of improvements in technology, computer programs and networks are always evolving, and with this advancement, cybercrime is also evolving and they also have simpler punishments. Punishments must be tough in order to reduce such crimes,” Shashank Tiwari, a excessive court docket lawyer within the central state of Madhya Pradesh who specialises in cybercrime instances, informed Al Jazeera.

As a borderless crime, cybercrime additionally poses jurisdictional points.

“Multiple jurisdictions are challenging. Rajasthan is a sextortion hotspot, therefore we have established a platform to provide assistance to other states’ police,” Sharat Kaviraj, deputy inspector common of the State Crime Records Bureau, informed Al Jazeera.

“The Ministry of Home Affairs has also implemented interstate cybercrime measures. Criminals basically exploit system vulnerabilities, therefore sim card issuing, bank account openings, and Know Your Customer procedures should be tightened.”

Cybercrime specialists say that if India is to keep away from turning into a hotbed of sextortion, the nation should reform the legislation, modernise its policing system and take away the social disgrace related to intercourse.

In the meantime, victims similar to Shyam and Ajay really feel they haven’t any authorized recourse and depend on counselling supplied by NGOs to manage.

“I still wonder why I, a poor person, who is hardly surviving with his family, was targeted for financial fraud,” Ajay mentioned. “But then I realised, I don’t matter to the system but I matter enough to society that it would drive me to death if things ever came out. A perfectly helpless target.”

If you or somebody you understand is vulnerable to suicide, worldwide suicide helplines could be discovered at www.befrienders.org