Cape Town - A Wynberg woman has warned job seekers to be careful of a WhatsApp sex pest trying to get your nude pictures.
The 21-year-old woman, who does not want to be named, says she uploaded her CV on various websites in the hopes of landing a job, but instead has been getting messages from a man wanting nude pictures of her.
“I work in admin and was looking for a job so I uploaded my CV on a website. Last week I received a random WhatsApp message from an international number,” the woman explains.
A man named “Bryan” claimed he worked for a photography studio in Cape Town and was looking for lingerie models, but the woman became suspicious as she had not applied for any modelling jobs.
She raised the issue in a community WhatsApp group and asked for advice.
A man who works for the ESS security company agreed it sounded suspicious and advised her to keep talking to “Bryan” to see what he wanted.
“I knew it was some form of prostitution or human trafficking because nobody recruits you for a job on WhatsApp,” she says.
“So I kept talking to him, but was shocked to see he wanted nude pictures because I was genuinely looking for work.”
In the messages, the man requested pictures of the woman in a thong and of her breasts.
“Show me a pic of your tits at work in bathroom so I know you are serious,” his message read.
Screengrab: Supplied
He also offered to pay for the naked pictures.
The woman says she never sent him any photos and now wants to warn other vulnerable and desperate job seekers not to fall for his tricks.
The Daily Voice called the man’s Whatsapp number, which appears to be from the USA, but calls went unanswered.
Hawks spokesperson, Captain Philani Nkwalase, says the matter has been handed to the human trafficking unit for investigation and warns job seekers to be careful.
“This is very common in human trafficking where they prey on people looking for work,” he tells the Daily Voice.
“The modus operandi changes based on what they want in the end. In this case, it could either be for human trafficking and the sex trade or they wanted to extort money.”
He explains in some cases the fake recruiters get the victim to send nude pictures and then threaten to share them on social media if the victim refuses to pay them.
“Once they have you in a compromising position, they will try to extort money from the victim. They say they will put it on Facebook and Twitter and you will find that they already know your profile because they have been spying on you.”