Prisoners in Medellín are exploiting the popularity of adult content by conducting scams that trick unsuspecting users into purchasing falsely advertised explicit material online. These fraudsters use fake profiles on various social media platforms to lure victims with supposedly exclusive sexual content, only to dupe them into paying for images and videos readily available on free adult websites.
Carlos*, a merchant, fell for such a scam when he found the profile of an attractive woman promoting erotic content for sale on social media. After negotiating the purchase via WhatsApp, he transferred $30,000 COP to an account given to him. To his surprise, the content he received featured other women, and he found identical images and videos available for free on adult websites.
Rolando Plazas, a legal representative of MRE Hunter, confirmed that he has received two complaints of similar scams involving men who were deceived into buying adult content through WhatsApp, Telegram, and OnlyFans. Plazas fears that this type of fraud will increase over time.
Medellin fraudsters are known to “throw the bait” with appealing pictures and extract relatively small sums of money, like $30,000 COP, from unsuspecting victims. Plazas highlighted that even small sums can add up if the scam is successful multiple times per day.
However, Gabriel Niño, Commander of the Gaula of the Metropolitan Police, noted that they have not received complaints of scams involving the sale of adult content. He suspects that in such cases, victims often opt to lose the money, given the relatively small amounts, rather than file any legal action against the culprits.
The situation turns more severe when this sale of adult content escalates into extortion, for which the Gaula has received official complaints. According to Niño, criminals use social engineering to extract personal information and then extort victims, threatening to expose them on social media unless they pay the requested amount.
The extortion amounts, set by the criminals, can range from $1 million COP to $30 million COP. So far this year, the Gaula of the Medellin Metropolitan Police has received 206 complaints of sexting extortion in the entire Valle de Aburrá, all of which are being investigated.
With an estimated 10,000 people in Colombia making a living by selling adult content, this boom in sexual content commerce generates a significant economic movement of approximately $2.5 billion COP, according to unofficial figures provided by experts.
In response to this growing issue, Commander Niño reiterated calls for the public to avoid sharing personal information when purchasing such content, and to report any such scams to the Gaula’s hotline, number 165. This alarming situation underscores the diversification of criminal markets operating from Colombian prisons, exploiting a rapidly growing industry by offering fraudulent sexual content catalogues.