With a growing number of internet users, police are getting numerous complaints of fraud and misuse of social networking sites. The cases range from threatening messages and hacking of private accounts to circulation of nude pictures on the web.

According to the cyber cell of the Metropolitan Police Crime Division, 477 complaints of cyber crime have been lodged so far this fiscal year. The MPCD has filed cases against 15 persons while the others were freed on bail. Some of the cases were settled between the two sides in police mediation.

A person was held on Thursday for blackmailing a woman repeatedly into having sex after showing nude pictures taken by making her unconscious.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) arrested Niraj Kumar Chaudhary of Hetauda for circulating nude pictures of a woman he had known through Facebook. The CIB said Chaudhary and the woman became friends when he worked in Saudi Arabia. The duo communicated regularly on the social network and had met when Chaudhary returned to Nepal. Chaudhary then took her to a hotel room and served her foods laced with intoxicating substances. He then took nude pictures of her and circulated them through his Facebook account while also distributing them to many friends of the woman.

“He would regularly torture her, threatening to disseminate more pictures if she refused to have sex with him,” said Superintendent of Police Tarini Prasad Lamsal, spokesperson for the CIB. “He also warned over phone of assaulting her if she reported the matter.”

Inspector Pashupati Ray, chief of the Cyber Cell, said some cases are settled among the parties but those defamatory or blasphemous need to be dealt with by the court.

Another case of social media abuse came to the fore on Thursday when police made public a person who had taken more than Rs10 million from around 40 women. Jiwan Lama of Dharan would attract girls on Facebook, pretending to be a man in the British Army or another foreign security agency. As the relationship developed, he would start asking for money from them.

Police have urged people not to accept friend requests from unknown persons and to file a complaint immediately if anyone tries to harass or blackmail them on the social media. According to the Electronic Transactions Act, anyone publishing explicit materials is charged with a fine of Rs100,000 or a jail term of five years or both.