A 21-year-old was arrested by Rachakonda police for hacking people’s social media accounts and blackmailing them. The accused, Aresani Bharath Kumar from Ghatkesar, a town in Medchal-Malkajgiri district was arrested on Wednesday.
He collected some random phone numbers of the victims from a popular classifieds website and used those numbers to log in their social media accounts and hacked them. He then collected personal data like photos of the victims and blackmailed them.
“After gaining access, he downloaded personal photographs of people and blackmailed them to pay him,” Cybercrime police said.
One of the victims filed a complaint with the police after receiving a blackmail phone call. The victim told the police that Kumar allegedly demanded Rs 10,000 from him.
On further investigation, the police found out that the accused was using an application to hide his real phone number and contacted the victims using a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) number. VoIP is a method that allows individuals to use the internet instead of a regular phone line. It conceals the actual phone number from the receiver.
