POLOKWANE – “I want to share my story with people not only to warn them, but to protect my reputation and not allow these extortionists to damage my name. One may think one knows a person when you have been chatting or communicating with them for some weeks on social media. I trusted too soon and fell victim to people who are now blackmailing me.”
Nico has built up a huge clientele in the city and neighbouring towns through his work, hence his decision to share his ordeal with Review readers.
“I have been single for more than a year and looked up a chat room, Grinder. The chat room discloses personal details and is based on location too. The problem is that most of the time you don’t really know who you are talking to. I started talking to a guy named ‘Owen’ and we tried to find common ground through our discussions. Later we exchanged cell numbers and carried on talking.”
A week later Owen contacted Nico, asking if he perhaps had a R1 000 to spare as Owen presumably had to pay his sister’s medical bills.
He also promised to have this money paid back by the following Friday.
Nico however, politely refused and that was when Owen started sending a lot of vulgar naked photo screenshots to him, all of these images superimposed with Nico’s face. He threatened to blackmail him by putting these images on various social media sites.
He gave him 45 minutes to e-wallet him R5 000 or he would post the photos on his business Facebook page. Nico decided to close his Facebook page as well as another Facebook page he featured on.
The blackmailer threatened that he would ruin Nico’s business if he did not give him the money.
Listen here:
Owen was unable to access Nico’s personal Facebook page and started sending voice notes to Nico, becoming more aggressive and threatening. He later wanted to negotiate how much Nico could afford to pay.
Nico realised that the extortionists were contacting him from four different numbers.
Of the phones, three were apparently stolen phones.
Two weeks went by without Nico being contacted by the blackmailers, but last Thursday, 6 December, he received communication from a different number.
They sent a link and a screenshot of a manipulated photo of Nico on a site. Nico has since downloaded an app and removed the photo.
“I keep asking myself what is next? Will they open a fake Facebook account? I do believe they will try again. Last week I had a lot of friend requests from fake Facebook accounts. The reason why I decided to go public with this is to warn people and to protect my credibility. It is all about money. I have fallen victim to this trick, and before I knew it I was blackmailed with threats of disgusting photos and videos, superimposed with my face. I have made a stupid mistake. Be very careful what you place on social media,” Nico warns.
He urges indivividuals to think twice prior to sending out any personal information on any sites.
Review had previously published an article on high school learners, boys and girls, who have also been exploited in a similar manner.
He has however opted not to open a police docket as he feels they may not be able to apprehend the perpetrators.
