A South African man has admitted carrying out a cyber-harassment campaign against his neighbors in an attempt to extort money.
Residents of the same quiet street in a Durban suburb that Dharmesh Singh calls home were subjected to weeks of abuse with no idea that the person behind it was their immediate neighbor.
Twenty-three-year-old Singh used unregistered SIM cards to create fake social media profiles from which he sent threatening messages to residents of Battersea Road, Reservoir Hills. He also sent threatening text messages and WhatsApp messages under the alias Sashin Soobramoney.
Some Battersea Road residents, including Singh s own parents, were inconvenienced by the almost constant arrival of e-hailing client pick-up services and food deliveries that they had not ordered in March and April last year.
Durban Facebook bully who tried to extort neighbour pleads guilty
By Zainul Dawood
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Durban - A RESERVOIR Hills man who taunted his neighbour and tried to extort him by using a fake Facebook account was sentenced in the Durban Regional Court on Thursday.
Dharmesh Singh, 23, pleaded guilty to attempted extortion.
In his plea and sentence agreement read out to the court by his attorney Deker Govender, Singh said while on Facebook, he had come across his neighbourâs Facebook page and Facebook messenger profile.
Singh then created fraudulent Facebook and messenger accounts/ profiles under the alias Sashin Soobramoney.
Singh used unregistered SIM cards and a mobile phone belonging to his father.