ZAMBIA POLICE ARREST FACEBOOK FRAUDSTER

LUSAKA, 4TH JANUARY, 2017 – Police in Lusaka have arrested a male adult identified as Joel Sikaneta aged 24 of Chowa Township in Kabwe for Extortion and Possession of Obscene Materials. The suspect is believed to have between June and December, 2017 swindled seven (07) females using nine fake facebook accounts opened in different names.
The accused person would pretend to be a white man, initiate an intimate relationship with unsuspecting females on face book after befriending them and promise to send them money in dollars and buy them cars.
He would begin by sending nude pictures for a white man on pretext that they were his and would later entice women to also send their nude pictures to him. He would thereafter use another account purporting to be a wife to the white man claiming to have discovered conversations and nude pictures in her husband’s facebook account.
She would then begin demanding for money from victims and threatening to publish nude pictures if they did not comply. When the victims plead for leniency, the purported wife would link them to either her brother or spiritual father here in Zambia who would give them an account number in which to deposit the money.
Several women including married women fell victim and ended up depositing money for fear of being embarrassed.
The suspect is currently detained in Police custody and will appear in court soon.