Pepper Content COO says a 'cop' told his father he was caught with rapist, demanded Rs 1 lakh

A start-up founder and COO from Uttar Pradesh has claimed that his father received an extortion call from an alleged police officer demanding Rs 1 lakh. According to Rishabh Shekhar, co-founder and CEO of Pepper Content, the "police officer" told his father that he was caught with a rapist and demanded Rs 1 lakh if the father wanted to avoid an FIR being filed against Shekhar.

"My father got a call from this number, with a DP of a police officer claiming I have been caught with a rapist and to protect me from media and FIR, he will need to pay him Rs 1 lakh," Shekhar shared on X along with a screenshot of the phone number and the photo used as the display picture. Also, the phone number of the alleged caller bore Pakistan's country code +92.

"At that exact moment, my number wasn't reachable. Thankfully, my father did not give in... but he did panic. For those five minutes, it felt like a distant possibility that something like this could have happened. Rational thought goes out of mind quickly when such things happen to someone you hold dear."

"This is becoming a serious hazard. There needs to be a serious crackdown on such scam and stop this robbing of innocent people off their life savings. My father is shaken and can't comprehend how someone can stoop so low and do such a thing," Shekhar added.

Aiming to spread awareness of the apparent scam, he urged people to educate their families and loved ones about such incidents so that they don't fall prey to it.