Israeli indictment says Telegram catfishing ring extorted men with threats and violence

Israel's State Prosecutor filed an indictment Monday morning against Zohar Devir, 28, of Eilat, Eitan Hassel, 20, of Ganei Tikva, Itamar Hanuna, 47, of Acre, and Lior Haken, 22, of Or Yehuda, accusing them of extorting more than 500,000 shekels from men they contacted on Telegram. They are charged, each according to his role, with extortion by force, extortion by threats, illegal access to computer material, privacy violations and additional offenses.

According to the indictment, the defendants and others opened fake Telegram profiles posing as married women or as a 17-year-old girl in order to deceive men. After making initial contact, they arranged meetings with the victims, where they presented themselves as police officers, the girl's brother, or the boyfriend of the woman the men had supposedly been messaging. They then threatened and attacked the victims and demanded money.

The indictment says the suspects also photographed the men and threatened to publish the material on social media. In one message, they wrote: “I understand that you are telling people in the group to leave. Understand that it will not help you because I will open a bigger new group and send everything right away. Including the videos of you crying. If needed, I will send it one by one to all 100 contacts I have, including your little girls, don’t play games with me.” In some cases, they carried out the threats, opening WhatsApp groups that included family members, relatives and acquaintances and posting the recordings alongside false claims intended to humiliate the victims.

The indictment further alleges that in some incidents the defendants took victims' phones, broke into them, searched bank accounts and contact lists, and later used the information they extracted. Separately, police said that about two months ago indictments were filed against eight residents of Bedouin communities in the Negev, Arad and Tel Aviv in a related case involving enticement, kidnapping and extortion by threats. In that case, police said the group ran a “seduction gang” that lured victims to remote meetings, including one businessman who was beaten, threatened with a gun, fired upon, and extorted for large sums before his attackers fled with property.