A former glamour model, Harriette Cranfield has claimed that her Facebook page has been hacked by “perverts” who are urging teenage girls to send in explicit photos of themselves in exchange for high-paid modelling work.
However, according to the Daily Mail, she states that once the images have been received the hackers demand the girls pay huge sums of money or threaten they’ll post them to the internet.
24-year-old Cranfield revealed that the youngest victim was 15-years-old. Speaking to the Mirror she said:
“The youngest girl was a 15-year-old and that was the most shocking because she had planned to meet the hacker so they could get more photos. That was when I phoned the police for the first time. She had sent explicit photos you wouldn’t expect a 15-year-old girl to take.”
Cranfield maintains that she first noticed something was wrong with her account in February 2015. After discovering that her Hotmail had also been hacked and her security questions altered she contacted Facebook. However, she was told that they were unable to do anything. The same occurred when she brought the issue to the attention of the police. Cranfield reported that the cops could not take any action as no crime had been committed.
“Based on the information we have been provided so far, no offences have been committed. However should any further information come to light, we would ask Miss Cranfield to contact us. We also encourage the people who believe they have been the victim of a crime to report any offences to police.”
The ex-model told the Daily Mail that she knew of 15 people who were being conned into sending sensual shots. But she fears that the total is actually much higher.
Cranfield revealed that among these 15 was an 18-year-old woman who had received messages from her account asking for her to send explicit pictures, promising to help make her the UK’s top model.
The 25-year-old said: “He entices them in using Miss Cranfield’s profile, because she’s well known in the industry, then claims that he can make them Britain’s next top model if they send over these pictures. [He] then reveals [he’s] not Harriette and demands £250 to not plaster their pictures all over the internet.”
Cranfield revealed that she has received messages on Twitter from underage girls and urges that further action needs to be taken. She has set up a Facebook group to warn friends about the con and hopes that Mark Zuckerberg’s people will pull their finger out and shut down the account as soon as possible.
