Australian man who posed as teenage YouTuber jailed for world’s worst sextortion

Rasheed posed as a teenage celebrity on social media to lure his victims.

A 29-year-old Australian man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for one of the worst cases of sextortion in the country’s history. Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed blackmailed hundreds of girls online, many of whom were underage, into performing explicit acts, it was reported BBC.

Rasheed posed as a teenage celebrity on social media to lure his victims. He built trust with them before blackmailing them with threats to reveal their private information. Despite his victims’ distress and pleas for help, Rasheed continued his damaging actions.

Rasheed manipulated more than 250 victims worldwide into performing explicit acts on camera.

The Australian Federal Police and the Western Australian Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team conducted a joint investigation that led to Rasheed’s arrest.

“The callous disregard this man had for his victims around the world and their suffering, humiliation and fear makes this one of the most horrific cases of sextortion ever prosecuted in Australia,” said Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean.

In announcing the sentence on Tuesday, Judge Amanda Burrows said Rasheed’s offending was of such magnitude that there was “no comparable case” in the country, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Rasheed posed as a 15-year-old American internet star, initiated conversations with his targets and later engaged them in discussions about sexual fantasies.

Rasheed threatened the victims to send their comments to friends and family if they did not perform a series of increasingly “degrading” sex acts, sometimes involving pets and other children in the home, the BBC reported.

The Western Australia Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (WA JACET) first launched an investigation into Rasheed’s activities in September 2019.

Several children told him they were suicidal – one incident involved sending images of self-harm – but he continued to blackmail them despite their “obvious distress” and “extreme fear”, the judge said.

He has been convicted of multiple charges, including sexual assault. He is eligible to apply for parole in August 2033.