Man Poses as Woman on Social Media to Extort Money from Men

The investigation into a case of extortion by a social media user has concluded at the Armavir regional investigative department of the RA Investigative Committee. As a result of the conducted investigative and procedural actions, several significant circumstances related to the case have been clarified.

The investigation revealed that a 40-year-old man from Yerevan created a fake account on the social media platform Odnoklassniki.ru to earn points in online games. Posing as a woman, he acquainted himself with another user and provided a mobile phone number while redirecting the given number to prevent the individual from calling him.

Subsequently, citing that there was no money on his phone account, he requested that money be transferred to him to ensure a positive balance so they could talk via phone. The user, not refusing his request, transferred different amounts of money to the phone number provided by the 40-year-old man on various days in November and December 2020. However, after receiving the transferred funds, the man claimed he had not received the money.

Additionally, it was revealed that the 40-year-old man had also extorted money from the same user by threatening to share compromising photos. Specifically, it was found during the investigation that the man, posing as a female user, sent a message demanding 20,000 AMD. After being refused, he defamed the user’s personal photos with sexual remarks and sent them to him, threatening that if the demanded money was not transferred, those pictures would be posted on social media.

Based on the gathered sufficient evidence, a charge has been brought against the 40-year-old man under Article 182, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code (extortion). A signature to refrain from leaving has been chosen as a preventive measure against him. The investigation has concluded, and the criminal case, with an accusatory conclusion, has been sent to court.