Nightclub bouncer jailed, fined for tricking women into sending him nude photos on Facebook
FILE PHOTO: People are silhouetted as they pose with mobile devices in front of a screen projected with a Facebook logo, in this picture illustration taken in Zenica October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
SINGAPORE: A nightclub bouncer who tricked more than 30 women into sending him nude photos by pretending that he was running a breast cancer screening campaign or representing a modelling agency was sentenced to jail and a fine on Monday (Jul 30).
Muhammad Rostam Rahim, 28, committed these offences between October 2015 and February 2018. He would hack into Facebook accounts and ask victims for nude photos for his own sexual gratification.
In April 2016, Rostam impersonated someone and sent a message to a 20-year-old woman on Facebook, asking if she wanted to be a bridal model.
After she agreed, he asked her to send him nude photos of herself so that he could "know her sizes".
Believing that she was communicating with her friend, the victim sent him several nude photographs.
On that same day, the victim received another message from a person she thought was her aunt. However, it was in fact Rostam using her aunt's account.
Posing as the victim's aunt, Rostam told the victim that he was suffering from breast cancer and wanted to spend more time with her. He asked her for nude pictures as well as photos of her in her underwear, saying that he would use this to get her modelling contracts.
As the victim had previously told her aunt that she was interested in modelling, she did not suspect that it was someone else contacting her, and so sent Rostam the photos.
Rostam did not stop here. Still posing as the aunt, he told the victim that he was going to die soon and wanted to watch her touching herself. The victim duly sent a video of her touching herself to him.
Eventually, the victim discovered that it was not her aunt who had been messaging her. She then made a police report.
HE HAD TWO METHODS OF ACCESSING SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
Rostam was the first person to be charged under provision 8B of the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act, for obtaining passwords to commit offences.
He faced 46 charges, with another 117 charges taken into consideration.
Rostam sought nude photos from his victims by saying he represented a modelling agency, or claiming that he was running a breast cancer screening campaign.
He had two methods of accessing the social media accounts. The first was by exploiting a vulnerability in Facebook accounts that use hotmail email addresses as login credentials.
If a hotmail user does not use his email account for 270 days or does not log into the account within 10 days of signing up for the account, the hotmail account is deactivated and terminated. This means that the hotmail user ID can be selected by another user and registered as a new account.
Rostam searched for Facebook accounts that used hotmail IDs as their Facebook login credentials. He then checked with hotmail.com whether the account still existed. If the account had been terminated, he would register for an account using the user ID he had obtained.
Once the account was registered, he would use the reset password function which would send an email to his new hotmail account, and gain control over the Facebook account.
The second method involved the use of phishing links to obtain a Facebook user's login credentials.
Rostam learnt how to create phishing links from a YouTube video and used phishing websites to send those links to Facebook users.
These links invite victims to view photographs or take part in activities like personality quizzes on the condition that they must key in their Facebook login incredentials.
After gaining their login credentials, Rostam would send messages to the friends linked to those accounts, asking for photos of their breasts. Some of them made police reports after becoming suspicious.
ACCUSED DIAGNOSED WITH FETISHISM, REOFFENDED WHILE OUT ON BAIL
Rostam was sentenced to jail for three years and five months on Monday, along with a fine of S$5,000.
District Judge Jasvender Kaur noted a 2016 report by the Institute of Mental Health, which indicated that Rostam was diagnosed with fetishism. However, she said that he still had "full control" over his actions.
She said that the offence was serious, with a large number of victims as well as detailed planning and premeditation. There was also a serious invasion of privacy, and Rostam had continued offending after being charged in December 2017.
