Tel Aviv indictment says gang posed as married women to extort men

Israeli prosecutors filed an indictment on Monday with the Tel Aviv District Court against Zohar Dvir, 28, of Eilat, Eitan Hassel, 20, of Ganei Tikva, Itamar Hanuna, 47, of Acre, and Lior Haken, 22, of Or Yehuda. They are accused of running a fraud and extortion scheme that used fake social media profiles to target men.

According to the indictment, submitted by attorney Oren Chaim of the Tel Aviv District Prosecutor’s Office, the defendants opened fabricated accounts on Telegram and pretended to be married women, sometimes even 17-year-old girls, to lure victims. After making contact, they arranged meetings and then allegedly confronted the men while posing in some cases as police officers, in others as the woman’s brother or romantic partner.

Prosecutors say the group threatened the victims, assaulted them, and demanded money. They also filmed the men and threatened to publish the recordings on social media. In one message cited in the indictment, they warned a victim that they would open a larger group and send the videos to all of his contacts, including his daughters, unless he complied.

In some cases, the threats were carried out. The suspects allegedly created WhatsApp groups that included relatives, friends, and acquaintances of the victims, and posted the footage along with false claims meant to humiliate them. The indictment also says they broke into some victims’ phones, searched banking information and contact lists, and used that material in the scheme. More than 550,000 shekels were transferred to the defendants, and they also attempted to extort hundreds of thousands of shekels more. The charges include extortion by force, extortion by threats, unauthorized access to computer material, privacy violations, and related offenses.