Mumbai/Kalyan/Thane: Tulsibhai Pawar finds herself overwhelmed most days and struggles to complete household chores. She had a hard time coming to terms with her husband’s suicide due to harassment from his sexual predator. Taking time off from her job to grieve her loss caused her to lose her job. And now, due to the financial crisis, she may lose her home too.
“I feel helpless and alone,” says the 38-year-old housewife from Bhadrapur, who makes a living through charity work with her teenage daughter.
Cybercrimes such as sextortion and fraudulent loan apps have common elements of harassment and intimidation, driving some victims to suicide and destroying their families. He said 3,562 cyber crimes were registered by the Mumbai Police from January to October, but the actual number is much higher. Experts liken the rise in cybercrime to a “digital pandemic” and call for strong countermeasures, including accountability for intermediaries such as social media platforms.
The last time Tulsibai spoke to her husband Mansingh, 41, was the day before he died. She said Mansingh worked as a cook at a gurdwara in Santa Cruz and she lived in the same premises. He called her in her upset state and instructed her to mortgage her money immediately. He also instructed her to transfer the money to her own bank account. On August 9, Mansingh committed suicide by hanging himself in his girlfriend’s room.
Tulsibai wishes she had thought more deeply when her husband asked her to arrange money. Unbeknownst to her, Mansingh was being blackmailed for money by several people posing as Delhi cyber police. They filmed an obscene video of him and threatened to upload it to YouTube unless he was paid. Mr. Mansingh had already transferred Rs 56,000 to them, but they wanted more. The FIR was only registered in October and the Santacruz police are yet to formally inform her about the three arrests they made in the case.
“Everything changed with the death of my husband. My daughter had to drop out of school and train as a hairdresser in order to start earning money right away. She wanted to study further, but we I can’t afford it anymore. My son helps at a gurudwara and works as a hairdresser.’We live on the little money they give us,” she said. After being fired from her job, she has not been able to find another job. She said she “doesn’t have enough money to pay the mortgage installments and the bank is threatening to foreclose on the house.”
Like Tulsibai, Dattaguru Koregaonkar often fights back tears. His 38-year-old brother Sandeep hanged himself in May 2022 after a fraudulent loan app called HelloCash altered his photos into obscene content and distributed them to his friends to force them to pay. committed suicide. The incident prompted authorities to go after the loan app fraudsters extensively and uncover the international connections behind them. However, Dattaguru says he has kept no record of the investigation.
Sitting at his home in Malad’s hilly Appada, Dattaguru spends his time between running around the hospital for his father’s regular treatment and putting food on the table for his extended family. He says there is. “Sandeep was a pillar of support and without him by my side, things were tough,” Dattaguru said. A week before taking his life, Sandeep had filed a written complaint with the Kral police about the constant threats and obscene content he was receiving from Hello Cash. “If the authorities had acted as planned, Sandeep might have survived. I am disillusioned with the system,” Dattaguru said.
Cyber investigator Ritesh Bhatia said a major trend in cybercrime is that fraudsters are increasingly impersonating government officials and blackmailing people into paying. “Without immediate action, deepfake creation and impersonation will reach alarming scale. Blocking scammers’ phone numbers and social media handles and freezing bank accounts is the first step. “Intermediaries such as social media platforms and others must do more to take responsibility and create support cells to provide assistance to law enforcement agencies,” he said.
In some cases, calls from fraudulent loan apps continue even after the victim has died by suicide. An elderly couple in Dombivli was mourning the death of their daughter when someone associated with a loan app showed up at their doorstep to check if their daughter was really dead. When she did not answer the phone, the man called her father and brother before her visit and sent them obscene material.
The 30-year-old woman continued to suffer for eight months. “My daughter had borrowed a small amount of money from an app to buy stocks, but the lender kept asking her to pay it back. Initially, we managed to help her with the money. The harassment continued. But our daughter has decided not to confide in us for fear of harassment, which will rattle us,” said the elderly couple. In July, she jumped in front of a moving train at Diva station after a deformed photo of her was passed on to her friends and relatives.
When a relative who had access to CCTV footage from Diva Station told her parents that their daughter had been walking up and down the station platform and had scribbled “Dad, please forgive me” on her wrist with a pen, the parents were shocked. I couldn’t sleep properly for a week. before she takes the plunge.
“I feel helpless and alone,” says the 38-year-old housewife from Bhadrapur, who makes a living through charity work with her teenage daughter.
Cybercrimes such as sextortion and fraudulent loan apps have common elements of harassment and intimidation, driving some victims to suicide and destroying their families. He said 3,562 cyber crimes were registered by the Mumbai Police from January to October, but the actual number is much higher. Experts liken the rise in cybercrime to a “digital pandemic” and call for strong countermeasures, including accountability for intermediaries such as social media platforms.
The last time Tulsibai spoke to her husband Mansingh, 41, was the day before he died. She said Mansingh worked as a cook at a gurdwara in Santa Cruz and she lived in the same premises. He called her in her upset state and instructed her to mortgage her money immediately. He also instructed her to transfer the money to her own bank account. On August 9, Mansingh committed suicide by hanging himself in his girlfriend’s room.
Tulsibai wishes she had thought more deeply when her husband asked her to arrange money. Unbeknownst to her, Mansingh was being blackmailed for money by several people posing as Delhi cyber police. They filmed an obscene video of him and threatened to upload it to YouTube unless he was paid. Mr. Mansingh had already transferred Rs 56,000 to them, but they wanted more. The FIR was only registered in October and the Santacruz police are yet to formally inform her about the three arrests they made in the case.
“Everything changed with the death of my husband. My daughter had to drop out of school and train as a hairdresser in order to start earning money right away. She wanted to study further, but we I can’t afford it anymore. My son helps at a gurudwara and works as a hairdresser.’We live on the little money they give us,” she said. After being fired from her job, she has not been able to find another job. She said she “doesn’t have enough money to pay the mortgage installments and the bank is threatening to foreclose on the house.”
Like Tulsibai, Dattaguru Koregaonkar often fights back tears. His 38-year-old brother Sandeep hanged himself in May 2022 after a fraudulent loan app called HelloCash altered his photos into obscene content and distributed them to his friends to force them to pay. committed suicide. The incident prompted authorities to go after the loan app fraudsters extensively and uncover the international connections behind them. However, Dattaguru says he has kept no record of the investigation.
Sitting at his home in Malad’s hilly Appada, Dattaguru spends his time between running around the hospital for his father’s regular treatment and putting food on the table for his extended family. He says there is. “Sandeep was a pillar of support and without him by my side, things were tough,” Dattaguru said. A week before taking his life, Sandeep had filed a written complaint with the Kral police about the constant threats and obscene content he was receiving from Hello Cash. “If the authorities had acted as planned, Sandeep might have survived. I am disillusioned with the system,” Dattaguru said.
Cyber investigator Ritesh Bhatia said a major trend in cybercrime is that fraudsters are increasingly impersonating government officials and blackmailing people into paying. “Without immediate action, deepfake creation and impersonation will reach alarming scale. Blocking scammers’ phone numbers and social media handles and freezing bank accounts is the first step. “Intermediaries such as social media platforms and others must do more to take responsibility and create support cells to provide assistance to law enforcement agencies,” he said.
In some cases, calls from fraudulent loan apps continue even after the victim has died by suicide. An elderly couple in Dombivli was mourning the death of their daughter when someone associated with a loan app showed up at their doorstep to check if their daughter was really dead. When she did not answer the phone, the man called her father and brother before her visit and sent them obscene material.
The 30-year-old woman continued to suffer for eight months. “My daughter had borrowed a small amount of money from an app to buy stocks, but the lender kept asking her to pay it back. Initially, we managed to help her with the money. The harassment continued. But our daughter has decided not to confide in us for fear of harassment, which will rattle us,” said the elderly couple. In July, she jumped in front of a moving train at Diva station after a deformed photo of her was passed on to her friends and relatives.
When a relative who had access to CCTV footage from Diva Station told her parents that their daughter had been walking up and down the station platform and had scribbled “Dad, please forgive me” on her wrist with a pen, the parents were shocked. I couldn’t sleep properly for a week. before she takes the plunge.