It is the same script every time, and it is running on every platform in the country right now — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, dating apps. Somebody pretty messages you first. Things move to video within a day. Then the demands start.
It works because it is fast, because it is embarrassing, and because most people have never seen it coming. Here is exactly how it goes.
The script
1. The approach
A message from a stranger — attractive photos, an account that looks real enough at a glance, a few posts, a few hundred followers. Often a friend request that arrives alongside two or three mutual friends, which is the part that makes people relax.
2. The speed
The conversation gets flirty fast. Much faster than a real one would. Within hours, not weeks. This is the single most reliable warning sign in the whole thing: nobody genuine is that interested that quickly.
3. The move to video
They suggest a video call. They go first, or seem to — usually a pre-recorded clip playing on their end. Then they ask you to reciprocate.
4. The recording
Your side is screen-recorded. You will not know it happened.
5. The demand
The tone changes completely. They send you a screenshot of your own video, a list of your friends scraped from your profile, and a number. Usually a few thousand shillings, payable to an M-Pesa number, within an hour. Sometimes they send it to one friend first to prove they can.
What to do
Do not pay. This is the whole thing. Paying tells them the account works, and the second demand always follows the first. The people who lose the most money are the ones who paid once, hoping it ends there. It does not.
- Stop replying immediately. Not an argument, not a plea, not one more message. Nothing.
- Screenshot everything before you block — the profile, the messages, the phone number, the M-Pesa till. You will need it.
- Block and report the account on the platform.
- Lock down your friends list so it is not public. This is what they use for leverage, and it takes thirty seconds to change.
- Report it. The DCI has a cybercrime unit and Safaricom can act on the M-Pesa number. A reported number gets used on fewer people.
- Tell one person you trust. The threat runs entirely on the fear of people finding out. It weakens the moment somebody else knows.
If they publish anyway
Most do not — publishing costs them their leverage and their next target. If it happens, report it to the platform as non-consensual intimate imagery, which every major platform removes on request and usually quickly. It is also a criminal offence in Kenya under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act. You are the victim of a crime, not a participant in one.
How to not be in this position
Be suspicious of speed. Reverse image search a profile photo before you trust it — it takes ten seconds and it catches most of these, because the photos are stolen. Keep your friends list private. And assume that anything on camera can be recorded, because it can.
More on this: how to spot a fake profile and staying safe when you meet someone.
