Blackmailers using maids busted

Suspects lured victims, recorded objectionable videos for extortion

LAHORE:

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has busted a gang involved in blackmailing affluent people after recording their compromising videos with its female members.

FIA officials said the gang’s members were arrested from Johar Town, Faisal Town, Shadman and Gulberg. The women allegedly lured officers and businesspersons after getting employed in their homes and offices.

The officials of the agency’s cybercrime wing claimed that the suspects had blackmailed hundreds of people, including traders and senior officials of multinational and local companies, and deprived them of millions of rupees in cash and jewellery.

The gang had been active in the city for about two years.

The victims were threatened with the exposure of their objectionable videos and photographs, and forced to pay large amounts to save their reputation.

FIA officials said an officer of a multinational company had reported the matter to the Cybercrime Wing.

The FIA arrested women who posed as domestic servants to ensnare the victims and then recorded their objectionable videos.

Read Rising online fraud spurs FIA into action

The investigation carried out over the complaint filed by a resident of Johar Town led to the arrest of three suspected members of the gang, including its ringleader.

The arrested suspects had confessed to having received millions of rupees from dozens of people, the officials said.

They revealed that they some of the victims had also given them valuable plots of land and jewellery.

The amount demanded by the blackmailers depended upon the financial position of the victim. 

The FIA said that the gang extorted Rs2 million from the director of a multinational company, but started blackmailing him again after some time. When he did not pay, his video clip was sent to his wife through WhatsApp. This resulted in estranging the couple’s relationship to the point of divorce.

The gang also demanded Rs2 million from an elderly trader. The man had been lured by a woman working in his office.

The investigators said a woman linked to the gang used to take a young girl to work with her as her daughter or niece to trap the men and then photographed him secretly in a compromising condition.

The FIA caught members of the gang red-handed while taking Rs2 million from the trader.

The investigation revealed that the suspects used to bring women from rural areas as well as other cities for their activities and had been involved in blackmailing for several years.

A number of immoral videos being used for the blackmailing were found by the investigators.

Replying to a question, FIA Cybercrime Wing Operations Director Babar Bakht Qureshi said it was regrettable that senior executives and businessmen were being blackmailed. He said ten FIA took action immediately when an officer filed a complaint in this regard.

He said people should verify the background of domestic helps before hiring them.

The official a decline in moral and social values was also contributing to an increase in such crimes in the country.

The director added that the FIA wing was receiving dozens of complaints daily about various crimes and was cracking down on criminal elements.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2021.