Cyberstalkers sextort $1.9M from young men via Apple Pay and Cash App

The conspirators posed as young females online in a sextortion scheme that targeted thousands of potential victims in Canada, the UK, and the US.

Six people have been arrested in relation to the allegations of running a sextortion ring that preyed on mostly young men, including minors, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ).

The suspects were charged with operating an international, financially motivated sextortion and money laundering scheme. They are accused of cyberstalking, interstate threats, extortion, money laundering, and wire fraud.

According to the indictment, the conspirators utilized multiple payment methods in an attempt to extort approximately $6.9 million. They succeeded in extorting approximately $1.9 million from their victims through Apple Pay and Cash App alone.

The conspirators are alleged to have offered potential victims to provide – and, in some cases, providing – sexually explicit photographs, video recordings, and “webcam” or “live video chat” sessions depicting what they falsely portrayed to be a young female.

In fact, all the accounts were operated by the conspirators themselves, the indictment said. “Unbeknownst to the victims… the conspirators surreptitiously recorded the victims as they exposed their genitals and/or engaged in sexual activity,” it noted.

The suspects then sent the victims copies of these fraudulently obtained sexual images and threatened to distribute them to the victims’ friends, family members, significant others, employers, and co-workers, as well as publish the material online – unless the victims pay.

Five people were arrested in Delaware in relation to the scheme, all resident in Wilmington, and subsequently charged.

Hadja Kone, 28, was arrested in April, followed by four other arrests – of Sidi Diakite, 30; Almamy Diaby, 22; Abdul Aziz Sangare, 26; and Abdoul Aziz Traore, 31 – in August and September.

Separately, Siaka Outtara, 22, of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in western Africa, was arrested by Ivorian authorities in February.

Aside from sextortion and related crimes, Ouattara, Kone, Diakite, Diaby, Sangare, Traore, and others are also alleged to have operated infrastructure to transfer the funds illegally obtained from the victims to conspirators located in Côte d’Ivoire and elsewhere overseas.

All face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each conspiracy count and money laundering count, and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count.