Fake YouTube star commits one of world's most severe sextortion
A 29-year-old Australian man has been jailed for committing one of the most severe sextortion cases in history. Posing as a famous teenage YouTuber, Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed manipulated over 250 victims into performing explicit acts on camera. The victims included 180 children. He was sentenced to 17 years in jail by the Perth District Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to 119 charges in December last year.
Rasheed sentenced to 17 years for sextortion
The charges originated from over 550 incidents that occurred within an 11-month period. According to news.com.au, he exploited victims from 20 countries, including Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, and New Zealand, among others. Australian Federal Police Commissioner David McLean labeled this as one of the most severe sextortion cases in history. The Australian Federal Police, United States Homeland Security Investigations, and Interpol collaborated to investigate reports of an Australian man sextorting girls via social media.
International investigation leads to Rasheed's conviction
The Western Australia Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (WA JACET) first launched an investigation into Rasheed's activities in September 2019. During investigation, it found that Rasheed used social media accounts to target his victims. He would contact young females with visible friend lists on social media, befriend them, and then manipulate them into providing explicit content. Rasheed would then blackmail these victims into providing increasingly sexual and degrading videos, threatening to send earlier explicit content to their family and friends.
Victim's testimony reveals Rasheed's deceptive tactics
One of the victims, a Canadian girl, reported to the police that she was 13 years old when she was contacted online by someone she believed to be a 15-year-old social media celebrity. In reality, it was Rasheed who asked her sexually explicit questions and then sent edited screenshots of their conversation that falsely showed her liking his sexual fantasies. He threatened to send these doctored images to her friends and family unless she complied with his demands.
Rasheed's extensive online exploitation uncovered
Sometimes, Rasheed forced his victims to perform sexual acts on camera, with one instance being viewed by nearly 100 other people. He also engaged in conversations with other child sex offenders online, exchanging sextortion strategies and sharing details of children who were vulnerable to blackmail and abuse. The AFP initially charged Rasheed when he was 25 years old in September 2020, and additional charges were laid in 2021.
AFP's extensive review of Rasheed's online activities
Since September 2019, the AFP and Commonwealth prosecutors have been reviewing Rasheed's stored online chat records, videos, and photographs. He was caught in 2020 after a police raid on his home. Rasheed is already serving a five-year sentence for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old in his car in a Perth park. He will be eligible to petition for parole in August 2033.
