Urgent: 17yo brother scammed out of ₹70k over 10 days via UPI (Sextortion/Blackmail). My mother is devastated. Need advice.
Hey everyone, I need some urgent advice and guidance.
My brother, who is just 17 years old, fell into a massive financial extortion trap over the last 10 days. It started with those fake WhatsApp video call/nude service numbers (he was targeted by scammers who sent packages like "3 min demo for ₹99", "10 mins for ₹199", etc.).
Because he is a minor, he panicked completely when they started blackmailing him. Out of sheer fear, he took money from our mother’s bank account and transferred a total of ₹70,000 via UPI to these scammers over the past 10 days. He hid it from us by making up stories that a friend needed the money.
When I finally found out today and messaged those numbers, they started demanding "service charges." Their regular numbers are now switched off, but we have 3-4 different numbers/UPI IDs they used.
My mother is completely devastated and crying uncontrollably. For our family, ₹70,000 is a massive, significant amount of money, not a small sum we can just look past. We are in complete shock and panicking.
I know that since the transfers happened over a 10-day period, the chances of a bank freeze working are very low, but we are desperate.