News: Fraudster posing as woman cons man into sharing nude photos on WhatsApp then blackmails him

An unemployed man pretended to be a woman on social media then used naked photos sent to him to try to blackmail a diamond ring and Dhs5,000 out of a man he had been messaging, a court has heard.

Dubai Court of First Instance was told that the jobless Frenchman, 33, pretended to be a Lebanese woman on Instagram and seduced the 35-year-old Emirati man into messaging nude pictures of himself using WhatsApp.

The Frenchman threatened to publish the photos on Facebook if he didn’t get what he wanted, prosecutors claim.

The accused, who posed under the name sandy.cute and called herself ‘Sandy’, the court heard, sent nude photos of a woman and asked the Emirati to do the same.

“She asked me to send her nude pictures of me and my private parts,” the Emirati said. “I initially refused but she continued to insist, so I gave in to her request after she promised me that she would delete them.”

The man said he asked for the snaps to be deleted two weeks later, but the request was refused.

“She told me that she wanted to keep them and that I would find out at a later stage the reason for that,” said the Emirati man. “She later told me that she had my personal details through LinkedIn and a list of all my contacts there.”

The Frenchman then asked if the Emirati could get two people he knew jobs at Emirates Airline, so the Emirati man asked him to send on their CVs, the court heard.

“She also asked me if I could do her a favour – so I asked her what kind of favour and she asked for a diamond ring and Dhs5,000 in cash,” the Emirati claimed.

The Emirati added he was told that a male friend of ‘Sandy’ would meet up with him. He then contacted the police who asked the Emirati to help set a trap.

The Frenchman, who had gone in person to collect the cash and ring, the court heard, was arrested on July 12 in City Centre Mirdif mall.

The Frenchman denies the charges.

The case continues on February 1.