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There was no gang or criminal organisation behind it — just the hands and skills of a 26-year-old woman armed with a mobile phone, a photo editing app, and the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI). Using these tools, she created a fictitious image of herself and presented it on social media with an "unreal body" that captivated over 300 men, who she is alleged to have 'sextorted'. However, she has now been arrested.
The police operation, dubbed 'curvas' (curves), began in Malaga. Officers from the cybercrime section of the provincial police headquarters received the first two complaints that pointed to the same woman, so they began an investigation focused on identifying the person behind the set-ups and sexual extortion.
After gaining the trust of the men who contacted her, the young woman would then extort them to obtain sexually compromising photos or videos and threaten to send the images to their family and acquaintances if they did not make a series of payments by bank transfer.
Following the arrest of the suspect in a small town in Guipúzcoa (País Vasco), cyber officers found that she had extorted money from at least 311 men throughout Spain. The number of victims was deduced from the payments made to the suspect's bank accounts. The transfer descriptions included phrases like "payment for agreement to stop threat" or "delete, please". However, most of the victims have not reported the attacks for various personal reasons.
Investigators from the cybercrime section in Malaga, who were joined by their counterparts in San Sebastian, analysed all the accounts managed by the suspect on social media networks. In one of them alone she had more than 13,000 followers, which demonstrated the "advertising activity of recruiting and establishing contacts with men". The image of the detainee was similar in age and facial features to the one that appeared in the reported profiles, but not her body, which had undergone a major transformation through the use of artificial intelligence.
When sufficient evidence was obtained, the court authorised the entry and search of her home. No sophisticated computer equipment was found in the house, but a smartphone with several artificial intelligence-based graphic retouching applications installed and a tripod with a light ring to record herself.
Subsequently, a data dump of the seized device was carried out at the police station. Officers analysed 3,500 conversations through different messaging applications and social media networks, which showed an evolution over time of the modus operandi used by the extortionist.
According to the investigation, at first she pretended to be a prostitute, urging men to hire her services in advance, after paying via Bizum, but never showing up at the agreed location. Later, she allegedly encouraged her followers to join a private channel with clear sexual content via an instant messaging application, which turned out to be another scam.
At the same time, the accounts where the victims paid the money from the 'sextortion' were analysed. In eight months, she received a total of 16,300 euros from her illicit business.
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