I want to mention a very dirty but an important and life threatening scam and I personally know several people including my colleagues and friends who were a victim to it.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is SKYPE scam which involves your social media apps like whatsapp and facebook. It usually starts with a friend request on Facebook or a dating app like skout or tinder.
Apparently a sexy girl sends a friend request which most of the men accept. The girl says that she’s living in Dubai Marina and during chat asks for details like whatsapp number, facebook ID etc. Once she has them all, she would say that she wants to talk over a skype video call which most of the men agree to.
She’d say that her mic isn’t working so just look at each other as she is horny and wants to do “the deed” infront of camera with the victim. Within no time she’s already stripped and doing herself and would insist the victim to show himself and his private parts. Once the scammer has a clear video of both the face and private parts of victim, he goes offline and the next message is received on whatsapp which is a youtube link of the sex tape of victim.
During the video play, the scammer hacks the facebook friend list of the victim and sends all the names of friends on whatsapp. He says that he wants money otherwise he’s going to send that link to his family, friends, colleagues and almost everyone on Facebook.
Too bad for people who upload their work and relationships on facebook.
The demand is minimum 5000 dirhams which should be sent through western union to a village in Morocco (the origin of this scam).
It doesn’t stop there. Even if money is sent once, the scammer asks again in a couple of weeks.
My colleague was rude to the scammer and he posted the link to his video on our company’s Facebook page, which everyone watched.
There’s a documentary on this scam. The small village in Morocco named “Oued Zem” is the main place where most of the scammers are based. It’s a multi million dollar industry there. The number of inward remittances is so huge that there are more than 50 Western Union branches just in that small village. The scammers get information through social media accounts and mainly target Arabs from oil rich countries, religious or public figures like mullahs, married men who are looking for some online “fun” and anyone who seems to be wealthy and has a reputation to maintain.
So guys be careful. Don’t let anyone fool you in the heat of the moment. Don’t show your private life to anyone online, especially to some stranger.
