Luna, a student at a public university, accepted a friend request from a stranger, talked for weeks, exchanged photos, and refused when he asked for private ones. He threatened to edit her pictures into "dirty" images and post them, then demanded money. She paid three times. When she could not pay more, he posted the edited photos. She called 999, sent the evidence, and within 24 hours the images were taken down and the man was arrested.
Raju Hossain, a Dhaka schoolteacher who rarely goes online, learned from a colleague that lies were being spread in his name; his Facebook account had been hacked and the hacker was asking his relatives for money. He contacted the police cyber crime division and had the account back in three days.
Both names are pseudonyms; both cases are real, and both show the same thing. Cyberbullying in Bangladesh can be stopped, if you act fast and in the right order.
The first hour
- Do not reply, pay or retaliate. Extortionists escalate when paid; arguments give them more material.
- Preserve evidence before blocking. Screenshot the messages, the profile, the URL of every post and the profile ID. Lawyers advise printing them for the police file, and not deleting the conversation, because the platform's log data must stay intact for investigators.
- Tell one person you trust. Ninety-eight per cent of complainants at Rampura police station are women, its officer-in-charge Md Rafiqul Islam told Prothom Alo, and most are reluctant to tell their families. Tell someone anyway; you should not carry it alone.
- Report and block on the platform. Facebook removes non-consensual intimate images quickly when reported under that category.
Where to go
- 999, the national emergency service, for threats and intimate-image abuse; it worked within a day in Luna's case.
- Police Cyber Support for Women: the Bangladesh Police unit for women victims, reachable on 01320-000888, at cybersupport.women@police.gov.bd and through its Facebook page, staffed by women officers.
- Your nearest police station for a general diary or case; officers say complaints about posted images and threats are acted on immediately, but most victims stop short of filing a case.
- DMP Cyber Crime Unit in Dhaka and the CID Cyber Police Centre nationally, for hacked accounts and organised extortion.
- The Cyber Tribunal in your district, through a lawyer, if a police station will not take the case, said Supreme Court lawyer Md Haider Tanviruzzaman.
Above all, said every officer and lawyer consulted, remember that you are not the one at fault. Keep calm, keep the evidence, and go.
