Instagram extortionist arrested in Delhi, targeted accounts with large followings

New Delhi, April 27 The Delhi Police have arrested an "online extortionist" who allegedly extorted money from Instagram account holders on the pretext of unblocking their accounts.

The accused, identified as Juned Beg (20), a resident of Jamia Nagar area, reportedly used to target Instagram accounts with a large number of followers and look for content that had abusive language. He would then report the account to Instagram and approach the account holder with the promise of unblocking the account for a sum of money.

According to the police, Beg was able to extort approximately Rs 90,000 from one of his victims, who had over "eight lakh followers" on her Instagram account.

"The victim had approached the police with a complaint that her account had been blocked, following which Beg had contacted her on WhatsApp and offered to unblock the account for a fee," said M Harsha Vardhan, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka).

A case was registered at Dwarka cyber cell police station and during investigation, a police team was able to track down the accused and recover a mobile phone from his possession.

"Juned Beg was subsequently arrested after which he confessed to his involvement in the crime," said Vardhan.

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