16-year-old traps man with girlfriends' voice clips, extorts money posing as cop

Kozhikode: The Kozhikode rural cyber police have identified a 16-year-old boy as the mastermind of an elaborate honey trap case in which he used voice clips of his girlfriends to lure a man and a photograph of a cop to extort money from him.

It all began with a complaint filed by C Girjith, an inspector in the Telecommunication and Technology section in Kozhikode Rural police in Vadakara after he came to know that his photograph was being used for a fraudulent purpose. The Rural cyber police probe led to the 16-year-old boy who had hatched and executed the fraud.

The boy posed as a girl with a fake identity on FB messenger and struck up a conversation with a middle-aged man from Malappuram. Later he forwarded nude video clips with faces masked to give an impression that the videos were of the girl who chatted on FB. He also prompted the man to send back his nude images and videos. Once the man sent the video clips, the boy introduced himself as a police inspector and threatened him with registering a case.

He chatted on WhatsApp and demanded money for not proceeding with the 'case'. The boy even used the photograph of the cop he had downloaded from the official website of Kerala Police to make himself look credible. The man got panicked and fell for the trap and paid Rs 45,000 to the boy.

"As he was not able to open his bank account, he made his accomplice, who is an adult, open an account, and forced the man to send money to this account 11 times," said M P Vineesh Kumar who led the investigation team. 

The boy's 19-year-old accomplice was arrested by the Kozhikode rural cyber police wing on Thursday from Palakkad. The boy has been summoned to be present before the juvenile court in Kozhikode on April 1. His accomplice was identified as Pezhunkara Mohammed Arif (19) from Palakkad. Later he was released on bail, on the condition that he should appear before the court on April 3. 

The police said the boy planned and executed everything on his own. "Even he never used any girl's help, but only used their voice messages. He also chatted with six other persons posing as a girl with fake identities," Vineesh Kumar said. The boy gifted Rs 5,000, a new dress and a mobile phone to Arif. He also gifted himself a new phone and bought a new dress for his family members. The Cyber Police has sent a letter to the boy's parents to be present before the Kozhikode Juvenile court with the boy.

It was a photograph shared on a WhatsApp group that did him in. The man who was being blackmailed had shared the matter with his close friend and also the photograph of the cop. This was forwarded to another cop who in turn shared the image in a police WhatsApp group. Girjith noticed his image being circulated and filed the complaint.