Scammer Allegedly Makes $600,000 a Month Holding Instagram Accounts Hostage

This article was produced in collaboration with Court Watch, an independent outlet that unearths overlooked court records. To subscribe to Court Watch, click here.

Feds charged a man with threatening to kill or injure several victims of his extortion schemes, after he outed himself on the “No Jumper” podcast. 

According to a criminal complaint filed in Nevada’s district court last week, Idriss Qibaa—known under pseudonyms including “Dani” and “Unlocked”—ran a website called Unlocked4Life.com which promises to unlock clients’ social media accounts. In many of the cases, and by his own admission on the podcast, Qibaa himself was the one locking the accounts to extort people out of thousands of dollars in order to get access back. The complaint doesn’t explain how he was locking people out of their accounts.

The FBI identified Qibaa as the man behind the Unlocked website and aliases in large part due to his confession on the podcast “No Jumper” hosted by Adam-22 in January, where Qibaa  talked in detail about his process for extorting victims. On the podcast, Qibaa talked about locking people out of their Instagram accounts, and how he charges his victims to unlock the account. According to the complaint, “Qibaa stated he has over 200 people who pay him monthly to maintain access to their accounts claiming he makes more than $600,000 a month.” Adam talked about hearing from stars who have been victims to such schemes, to which Qibaa responds they’re “getting extorted.” 

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