In the first cybercrime case of its kind in Jabalpur, a popular Instagram creator from Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur has fallen victim to a digital extortion racket.
Azim Ahmed, 28, a social media influencer with 57 million followers across 96 Instagram pages, lost Rs 50 lakh to cyber fraudsters who threatened to "strike" and "ban" his accounts.
Ahmed has filed a complaint with the Jabalpur Cyber Cell, but the fraudsters remain at large.
The 28-year-old, a software engineer-turned-digital entrepreneur, built his online empire from scratch. His first Instagram page, created in 2017, gained explosive traction during the Covid lockdown in 2021 and he later launched a digital marketing startup called Whoopy Digital with friends.
But the success has now brought sleepless nights. "For almost a year, I have been receiving fake copyright strikes and threats. They claim my posts are their content and say if I don't pay, my accounts will be deleted," Ahmed said.
Fearing the loss of his pages and his livelihood, Ahmed said he paid the extortionists repeatedly and, over time, the payments added up to Rs 50 lakh.
Ahmed said the threats escalated to phone calls and fake "Instagram strike" emails. "They call themselves mediators. A caller from Pune demanded Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 to remove fake strikes," he revealed.
Jabalpur Cyber Cell in-charge Neeraj Negi confirmed that this is the first reported case in the city where fraudsters extorted money by threatening "fake content strikes".
"This is a new-age cybercrime trend. Fraudsters are exploiting Instagram's automated content systems. Once a user receives multiple fake strikes, their account faces suspension," Negi said.
"We are contacting Instagram's internal team to trace how these fake bans are being triggered and who is behind them," he added.
from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/O2lCIe7
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