Instagram sextortionist exposed after threatening with fake nudes

A message dropped into my inbox unprompted, the sender’s profile photo a young woman in a bikini. I decided to test how easy this exchange would spiral into blackmail.

A screenshot of an Instagram message sent to journalist Mohammad Alfares by “Jen” as part of a sextortion attempt.

A message dropped into my Instagram inbox unprompted: “Hello dear.”

The sender’s profile photo was of a young woman, carefree in a bikini atop a 4WD ute on a sunlit beach.

I knew I was almost certainly dealing with a sexual extortionist – someone pretending to be an attractive woman, probably based overseas, to extort money from unsuspecting boys and young men.

Within minutes I’d be proved right.

As part of an experiment for The Weekend Australian to test how quickly and easily messages on social media can spiral into blackmail, I replied.

“Hi,” I typed.

“I’m Jen, How are you doing,” came the instant reply.

My profile listed my location as Australia.

“I’m here in Marla, Australia. Just home bored lol. I’m 19, hbu (how about you)?” Jen typed.

I quickly cut to the chase.

“Listen, I believe you’re a bot,” I wrote.

The attempt to deny it was half-hearted.

“Damn what the heck. And why would you call me that just because I was chatting you or what,” Jen wrote.

Then, like a switch had been flicked, the messages became menacing.

“Hey, I have your nudes and everything needed to ruin your life,” Jen wrote.

“I’ve screenshot all your followers, tags, and those that comment on your post. I can send this nudes to everyone till it goes virals or send to all females on your list and your family. It’s your choice now if you will cooperate or let the games start.

“You can go ahead and block me. I will be so happy if you do that. I only have one click to ruin your life. Deal or no deal?”

There were no nude images of me.

A screenshot of part of an Instagram message sent as part of a sextortion attempt.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“You pay me 2000. Make your decision right now. I don’t have time.”

Then came something unexpected – Jen sent me an intimate image of another male, threatening to share these and claim it was me.

It exposed that scammers are even attempting to extort money from people who do not send intimate photos of themselves.

I cut off contact and blocked the account, which is what cyber safety experts recommend victims immediately do, and I have not heard anything since.

The entire exchange lasted no more than 10 minutes.

Like a switch had been flicked, the messages became menacing.

Instagram offers options to report “nudity or pornography, sexual exploitation or solicitation, and threatening to share private images”.

I selected the latter to see if the reported account would be swiftly dealt with, but did not hear back.

Jen’s account is still active and has 956 followers, eight more than the time of our exchange a week ago. Ominously it is also following 262 people, none from the same time period.