Meta has filed a lawsuit against the mastermind behind a large-scale extortion scheme on Instagram. The defendant, Idriss Qibaa, is the architect of Unlocked 4 Life, a scheme through which he threatened users and demanded payment in exchange for access to their own accounts.
According to the lawsuit, Qibaa openly boasted about his expertise in account suspension and restoration on Instagram. In January 2024, he admitted to generating over $600,000 per month from this operation. He also claimed that more than 200 individuals regularly paid him to maintain access to their accounts. Furthermore, Qibaa acknowledged that even high-profile celebrities had fallen victim to similar schemes.
Prosecutors allege that Qibaa resorted to physical threats against those who refused to comply with his demands. In August 2024, he was charged with violations of federal interstate communication laws. Court documents detail his intimidation tactics, which ranged from sending thousands of abusive messages and racist slurs to issuing death threats. In one particularly egregious case, Kibaa threatened to leak a victim’s Social Security number (SSN) and demanded $20,000 to cease his harassment.
Meta contends that Qibaa offered illicit services, including the ability to suspend user accounts, bypass the company’s internal security measures to restore them, and artificially inflate follower counts. Moreover, he allegedly replicated these fraudulent tactics across multiple platforms, including X, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, and Telegram.
In February 2024, Meta issued Qibaa a cease-and-desist order and banned his accounts on Facebook and Instagram. However, he circumvented these restrictions by creating new accounts and persisting with his fraudulent activities. He reportedly filed false reports against user accounts for policy violations, leading to their immediate suspension, and subsequently demanded payment for reinstatement.
Meta has declared its commitment to utilizing all available legal avenues to protect users and combat such abuses.
