Chennai: Three persons including the Indian mastermind of Tamilnadu and Cambodia-based ‘hi-tech extortion gang’ have been arrested by the police following complaints by several social media users.
The accused used fake police notice and browser pop-up window to extract money from Indian citizens, claiming it to be a fine for browsing pornographic material.
The three accused — Gabrial James, Ram Kumar Selvam and B Dhinushanth — were arrested from Tamilnadu by a team of Delhi Police’s Cyber Cell, who camped in the region for over a week and travelled over 2,000 kilometres between Chennai, Trichi, Coimbatore, Udhagamandalam to finally apprehend the three men.
According to the police, the trio operated on the behest of their mastermind, B Chanderkant, who is based out of Cambodia and is Dhinushanth’s brother.
Police said the gang, whose mastermind operates from Cambodia, managed to extort more than Rs 30 lakh from thousands across the country in the last six months.
According to DCP (Cyber Cell) Anyesh Roy, ‘There were a few complaints online about fake ads and pop-ups warning internet users that they were caught watching pornography and it’s illegal. These notices also had UPI payment and QR code payment options to pay the ‘fines’.’
Police said the fake notices would say their computer will be blocked as they have been caught watching pornographic content which is sexually violent or involves paedophilia. So, they would immediately pay up.