A Cuban residing abroad alerted through a video posted on TikTok about a new type of scam on social media, in which criminals use fake video montages and cloned Facebook profiles to extort their victims and demand large sums of money.
"Attention, everyone. A new, or maybe not so new, scam is in sight," began user @lainet2022, who shared with visible distress how she almost fell victim to the deception.
According to what he said, the scammers contacted him via WhatsApp sending a manipulated video that showed a girl “doing inappropriate things” with photos of him and his family surrounding the frame. The criminals demanded $10,000 in exchange for not posting the alleged material on social media.
"They started calling me, sending me angry emojis, telling me they were going to make my life miserable," the young woman explained. "The first thing I did was block them, but then they messaged me from another number, pretending to be a friend of mine from the neighborhood."
The second attempt at the scam was even more elaborate. The Cuban woman recounted that the supposed friend sent her screenshots of a fake Facebook post featuring her name, and then connected her with an alleged "detective" who claimed to be in charge of the case.
"The man spoke as if he were in a police station, with background noise and everything, very convincingly. He made me share my WhatsApp screen and was guiding me on what I should write to the scammer," he recounted.
The supposed investigator insisted that the victim needed to send a sum of money "to catch the criminal," assuring them that the amount would be held securely and that there would be no risks involved.
“She told me to offer him 500 dollars, that nothing would happen. But I don’t have that much money; I told her I could only give 100. That’s when my husband, who was listening, messaged me on WhatsApp warning me that the detective was the same scammer,” she recounted.
Upon realizing the trap, the Cuban blocked all the involved numbers and reported the accounts on WhatsApp and Facebook. She also contacted the real friend whose identity had been impersonated, who confirmed that her identity had been used without her consent.
"It's crazy, gentlemen. I hope no one else falls for this. Report it and don't send money to anyone," warned the young woman in her post, which quickly went viral among Cuban users.
The complaint adds to the numerous cases of digital extortion and profile cloning that are frequently reported among Cubans both on and off the island, in a context where WhatsApp and Facebook are the primary communication channels and where online scams have notably increased.
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