Delhi man arrested for ‘cyber harassment’; QR code of noodles vendor leads to accused: Police

Delhi: A 22-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly blackmailing and harassing a woman by creating AI-manipulated explicit images of her, a police officer said on Monday.

Police arrested the accused after they found a QR code of a noodles vendor, who was asked to receive money from the complainant through the code.

Nikhil, a resident of Nand Nagari, was arrested by the cyber police of Southwest district, the officer said.

“The accused used fabricated images to extort money and threaten the victim, highlighting a disturbing misuse of artificial intelligence in cyber crime,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Surendra Choudhary said.

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He added that using advanced AI applications, the accused manipulated the complainant’s profile picture on a social media platform to create sexually-explicit images and sent those to her via the platform’s “one-time-view” feature, preventing her from saving the content.

The officer said the complainant, a college student, filed a complaint at the Cyber South West police station on January 6, alleging harassment, threats and blackmailing.

According to her statement, she received a request to follow and direct message (DM) on a social media platform from an account impersonating a woman. The account’s user initiated friendly chats, but the tone soon turned malicious, police said.

The accused shared manipulated explicit photos and videos of the complainant with her and demanded money. Threatening to share the fabricated images on social media platforms and with her family members, the accused left the victim distraught and anxious, the DCP said.

She reported the matter to her parents, who encouraged her to approach police.

A case was registered and further investigation launched. The chat history from both sides was analysed, revealing the accused’s strategy of impersonating a woman to gain the victim’s trust, the officer said.

The suspect had manipulated the victim’s profile picture using an AI-enabled application to create explicit content, he added.

Through technical surveillance and information provided by Meta, police tracked the accused’s movements using the phone number registered with the fake social media account. His activities were traced to Harsh Vihar in Northeast Delhi.

“During the investigation, police discovered that the accused had shared a QR code with the victim for payments. This QR code was traced to a local street vendor selling noodles near the residence of the accused. The vendor confirmed that he was instructed by the accused to hand over the money received through the QR code,” the DCP said.

A police team raided the location of the accused late on Sunday evening, apprehended him and seized a smartphone allegedly used in committing the crime.

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Nikhil, a Class-8 dropout, has been unemployed and is known for his fondness for partying with friends. In 2023, he created a fake social media account to interact with women online for entertainment. Over time, he devised a plan to extort money using the fake account, targeting unsuspecting victims like the complainant, police said.

When the victim in the instant case blocked his account, Nikhil continued to harass her using multiple fake accounts, they added.