Police hunt online nude picture publishers

A manhunt is underway for the suspects behind the publication of nude pictures of women on a number of websites.

The Accra Central Police Command mounted the operation after receiving complaints from victims who claimed to have seen their nude pictures placed on pornographic websites without their consent.

Victim’s report to police

The Police Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mr Freeman Tettey, told the Daily Graphic that the Accra Central Police had, since December 2013, been receiving complaints from women on the matter.

Since the beginning of February 2014, four different women had lodged separate reports of seeing their nude pictures published on different pornographic websites without their permission.

Further probing of the matter indicated that the pictures were taken by men who befriended the victims through social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Viber, and Chat on.

Mr Tettey said investigations had established that a number of young men who were behind the nude pictures sold the pictures to the websites and were paid in foreign currency.

The modus operandi of the young men, he said, was to lure the women through the social media platform and later become their lovers.

“They spend lavishly on the women and then ask them to pose nude, without telling them that the pictures were for commercial purposes,” he said.

In some cases, he said, the unsuspecting women were paid GH¢2,000 or GH¢3,000 to entice them to have their pictures taken.

The women, he indicated, were also asked to take nude pictures of themselves which were sent to the ‘lovers’.

Pictures sold to pornographic websites 

The pictures, Mr Tettey said, were later sold to the pornographic websites, which in turn displayed them for visitors from across the world to access.

The Police Public Relations Officer said the victims included students of senior high schools and tertiary institutions across the country. 

“The Ghana Police Service is concerned about this development. It is very worrying. We are not saying women should not be in relationships, but they have to be wary of people who want to take advantage of them,” he said.

He said it had been observed that “it is the latest business that many young men are venturing into to make money”.

He urged parents, schools and churches to advise young females to be cautious when entering into relationships in order not to fall victim to such syndicates.

Victim tells her story 

A victim who would not be named told the Daily Graphic that she met a man on Facebook in early 2013 and shortly afterwards they started exchanging messages and pictures. 

After some time the man, who claimed to be in the United States, even though he was Ghanaian, started inquiring from her if he could travel to Ghana to meet her physically.

“In November last year he called and told me that he had arrived in Ghana and so we met and started going out. Then one day he asked me to pose nude for him, so that he could take those pictures with him back to his base and I did,” she said.

She said a few days after her lover had supposedly left Ghana, her brother called her to inform her that he had seen her nude pictures on a pornographic website.    

“I cannot stand the embarrassment. I have written to the website to take the pictures off but I have not received a response and my pictures are still on the site,” she said. 

Ghana Post intercepts nude pictures 

The Public Relations Officer of  Ghana Post, Mr Ekow Badu Paintsil, said  the company had intercepted a number of nude pictures of women which they suspected were being posted by men to foreigners.

He said the senders usually deceived the recipients, mostly men, to believe that the pictures were sent by the women in the pictures.

“By so doing, they lure the recipients to send them money for more poses,” he said. 

writers email: emelia.ennin@graphic.com.gh