In recent years sextortion has become one of the most lucrative scams used by opportunistic criminals with basic technological skills. And now, this insidious form of cybercrime has taken South Africa by storm, with more and more people falling prey to these ingenious scams.
But there is a glimmer of hope amid all this chaos, as a private investigation firm based in Stellenbosch, Royal Investigations, has managed to crack a sextortion case that almost pushed the victim into suicide.
According to the investigators, the victim, who cannot be named, engaged with a certain white female on a popular online classifieds website, www.adsafrica.co.za, who claimed to be from Port Elizabeth. After exchanging explicit nude pictures, the seemingly ordinary connection took a sinister turn.
The victim was forced to pay R25 000 to prevent the explicit pictures from being released and was emotionally drained, even contemplating suicide should the ordeal did not end soon.
Royal Investigations, which was assigned to investigate the case, worked around the clock to gather intelligence and follow up on leads. In a race against time the investigators managed to identify the suspects and their whereabouts, ultimately leading to the arrest of Morgan Potgieter (27) and Mlungisi Ximba (25) in Dobsonville, Soweto late in February.
Stellenbosch detective Captain BT Adams played an important role in the investigation, providing guidance and commitment throughout the process. The suspects were arrested during a multidisciplinary operation led by Adams and the Winelands Crime Intelligence cluster.
The vehicle used by the suspects on numerous occasions was also searched, where further incriminating evidence was found and confiscated. Both suspects were placed in transit and made their first court appearance on Monday 6 March.
According to John Alexander, lead investigator of Royal Investigations, the firm is inundated with extortion cases, where a significant majority of suspects target their victims from different provinces, confident their identities can be hidden behind false profiles and unlisted cellphone numbers. However, he and his team have demonstrated that these criminals are sorely mistaken.
Royal Investigations has called on the National Prosecuting Authority to make an example and impose direct imprisonment on those who break the law, setting a precedent for future cases to follow.
