Caught in the Web of Deception: Understanding the Threat of Cyber Blackmail

The internet is the perfect platform for offenders to manipulate and target children and young adults. 

Cybercrime, particularly against women, has many subcategories. This includes cyber exploitation, cyber harassment, cyber blackmail, cyberbullying, etc. According to the 'James Clark School of Engineering’, approximately 2200 cybercrime cases occur each day globally, proving that it’s a real threat to society. In most cases, people find ways to deal with these threats and leave all this in the past. However, in some cases, cybercrime can be so emotionally challenging for its victims that it ends with the victim taking their own life.

Such was the case with Naila Rind. Naila was a Pakistani student studying at Sindh University in her final year of the master's program. She lived in the Marvi Hostel at Sindh University, located in

Jamshoro. She shared a room with four other girls. She was discovered hanging from the fan in her dorm room on January 1st, 2017.

According to her family, Naila was a quiet, studious girl, and everyone in her circle said that Naila wasn’t one to give up on life so easily. This raised the question of whether it was suicide or a masked murder.

This theory was, however, soon proven false based on the evidence at the scene. The room she was in had two windows and one door. One window faced the gardens while the other faced the hallway. Both these windows had grills on them, which were confirmed as intact when the room was scanned – this indicated that no one had broken into the room. The door was also latched from the inside, which confirmed that she was the only person present in the room at the time of her death. Hence, the possibility of murder was ruled out. When the police got to Rind, she had been gone for about 5 hours.

One of Naila’s roommates saw her hanging from the fan through a crack in the hallway window. She immediately called the police, who came in a matter of minutes. Upon further investigation, it was understood that Naila was present at the university just for the weekend because she was in the process of submitting her final-year thesis. This is why only a handful of students were present at the university during this time. Naila had actually completed her master's and should’ve vacated the room a month earlier, but she decided to stay to pursue further studies.

All this raised the next question; Why did Naila Rind commit suicide?

Initial investigation of the case shows that Naila was being blackmailed by a man called Anis Khaskheli. The investigators revealed that Anis had been blackmailing Naila with images and videos in the last 3 months. After the blackmail got too much to bear, Naila took her own life.

Anis was a private school teacher at a university in Jamshoro. The investigators said that they began talking on Facebook in October. Anis had promised Naila that he was going to marry her, but he later refused to marry her which caused Naila to go into depression. He was constantly blackmailing her with pictures of herself.

After Anis’ phone was checked, it was revealed that he had promised the same future to about 30 other girls. Upon investigation of his photo gallery, it was found that he had dozens of inappropriate images of many girls, including Naila. It is said that Naila took her life after a 24-minute call with Anis.

After a while, Anis admitted to his blackmailing, but he kept saying that he wasn't the cause of her death.

A few weeks after her death, Naila’s brother Nisar Rind said that Naila had come home one day and looked upset and disturbed. She revealed to her family that she was being blackmailed and harassed online. Her family told her to concentrate on her studies, and that they would deal with this situation for her. This exchange happened on December 18th, 2016.  Unfortunately, it became too much to bear for Naila – compelling her to take her own life just a few weeks later.

There's a widespread misconception that these kinds of incidents are exclusive to underdeveloped or developing countries because of poor security measures and awareness. However, cybercrime is more of a global issue, with the UK having the highest number of cybercrime victims per million internet users.

Amanda Todd was a young girl who committed suicide at the age of 15. She was a sweet girl who wanted to spread kindness in the world. She became a victim of online exploitation and cyberbullying at the age of 12.

She started to talk to a grown man (let us call him Josh) at the young age of 12. They talked for a while, and then Josh started asking her to reveal herself to him in front of her web camera. When she did so, Josh would take screenshots and videos and keep them with him. He kept asking her to expose herself to him until one day she refused. After hearing her rejection, Josh leaked the pictures he took to her classmates on Facebook.

This made her a victim of both cyber blackmail and cyberbullying. Her friends and classmates completely abandoned her after this. It got so bad that she had to change schools, but the bullying followed her there as well, with Josh sharing the pictures with her new schoolmates as well.

To cope with all of this, she indulged in drugs and alcohol. Eventually, it was too much for Amanda to handle. She took her own life at the age of 15 on October 10th, 2012.

Before her suicide, Amanda filmed and released a YouTube video telling the world about her painful and traumatizing experiences. She aimed to raise awareness among people to avoid these situations and help those who were undergoing similar conditions. Her video was 8 minutes long, titled ‘My story: struggling, bullying, suicide, self-harm’.

Such situations are heartbreaking to hear about and traumatizing to go through. Women of every background deserve to be educated regarding identifying signs of cyber blackmail, cyber exploitation, etc. They should be able to identify hidden threats and be taught to not share any personal information or images. Younger girls should not be given access to forums where they can fall victim to such situations. If any kind of cyber crime occurs, it is crucial for young girls and women to report the crime to authorities and trusted adults and ask for their help and support. As a community, we must work on creating a supportive, non-judgmental environment to help victims grow and move on, providing them with the resources and emotional support they need to recover. Don't be afraid to reach out, there's a lot of support and kindness out there to help you during your trials.