FBI arrests man in Las Vegas for allegedly extorting Instagram users after he gloated on podcast
The FBI arrested a boastful social media scamming suspect last week after the Moroccan national allegedly bragged about his extortion scheme in a tell-all podcast interview that launched the investigation against him.
Idriss Qibaa – previously known as "Dani" or "Unlocked" – was arrested at his Las Vegas home and is facing federal charges related to two criminal felony counts filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nevada.
He allegedly violated interstate communications laws for violent threats he relayed through text messages to two victims and members of their families, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Fox News Digital.
"I just couldn't believe I was in the same room with someone who could do that," No Jumper podcast host Adam Grandmaison, better known as Adam22, told Fox News Digital. "It's for sure far more sinister than I ever could have imagined."
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Idriss Qibaa is pictured on Adam Grandmaison's No Jumper podcast, where he told the host that he made $600,000 per month from over 200 victims. (No Jumper )
Qibaa ran a website called Unlocked4Life.com, which was still active as of Monday. He promised to unlock clients' social media accounts. But by his own admission, Qibaa was the one locking down the accounts to extort people out of thousands to get their access back.
He also offered to artificially inflate users' views or followers for a cost, to gather personal information on others for customers and to get other users banned on customers' behalf.
In his interview with Grandmaison, Qibaa said he "has over 200 people who pay him monthly to maintain access to their accounts, claiming he makes more than $600,000," according to the criminal complaint filed in Nevada's district court.
When asked on the podcast why he would detail his illegal business model publicly, Qibaa said, "You guys can kill me; that's the only option."
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Adam Grandmaison, also known as Adam22, appears alongside Idriss Qibaa in the January podcast that alerted authorities to his alleged illegal activities. (No Jumper )
"I wanted people to really understand what's going on. … Nobody's talked about it, nobody's done an interview on it. ... I was like, f--- it," Qibaa said in the January interview. "For me, if they want to come and take my account over, this this and that, you can't take somebody out like me. It's like cockroaches."
The brazen hour-long interview tipped off the feds, according to their criminal complaint. Investigators tracked down a slew of victims – including a realtor, dentists, businessman, journalist and influencer, according the complaint – and quickly realized that the alleged extortionist was going further than just targeting their social media accounts.
Allegedly, Qibaa destroyed victims' property and threatened to harm and kill them and their loved ones.
In one instance, according to the criminal complaint, Qibaa "made threats to shoot or injure [one victim's] daughter, fiancé, dog, business partners and their families."
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Adam Grandmaison, also known as Adam22, hosts the "No Jumper" hip-hop podcast. (Adam Grandmaison/No Jumper)
Another target had her Instagram account locked and then was informed that a California dentist who previously treated the victim's last employer had allegedly hired Qibaa to do so.
She was contacted by someone called "Unlocked" who would pepper her with more than 2,000 SMS messages, ultimately threatening to "blast out" her Social Security number if she didn't pay $20,000.
In another case, he went to a victim's house, grabbed a rock out of the driveway and smashed the windshields of a white Bentley and white Mercedes-Benz in an incident caught on security footage, the documents state.
Grandmaison told Fox News Digital he was glad that his interview with the alleged extortionist was "in any way useful to getting [Qibaa] off the streets."
Grandmaison, who has interviewed singers and rappers like Usher and XXXtentacion, said he's spoken with all walks of life in the underground world for his podcast, including "dudes who were hit men, serious drug traffickers, pimps and prostitutes."
But his interview with Qibaa, who went by "Dani" or "Unlocked," stood out, according to a criminal complaint.
"Usually when you have a conversation with a rapper who is involved in some kind of illegal behavior, there is a constant elephant in the room, that this is stuff that should not be discussed on camera," the podcast host said. "If they do try to say something, they would say it in a coded way.
"But this dude just blew my mind by being seemingly willing to discuss everything that his business consists of. You're thinking, ‘Why would you want to share this?’"
"I was pretty baffled that he was willing to divulge so much of this s---," he continued.
Grandmaison said that after the January interview, Qibaa began to threaten him, too.
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"This has never happened to me before until I got into communication with this guy," the host said. "He threatened to release my emails, he said he could stop my car while I was driving it … everything that he threatened me with was stuff that I knew was not possible."
Although he was not a citizen, Qibaa lived in the U.S. legally, according to the complaint against him.
"On multiple occasions through different means, Qibaa has stated if he feels any law enforcement pressure or is arrested and makes bail, he will flee back to Morocco and ‘live like a king,’" the FBI said.
Qibaa's attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
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