A brazen extortionist faces decades in prison for stealing social media profiles and threatening to kill his victims if they refused the ransom.
Idriss Qibaa, 28, pleaded guilty in a Nevada federal court to extortion, money laundering, stalking, and threats to injure after an FBI investigation.
His sick scheme came undone after he bragged on a podcast that it was making him $600,000 a month from ripping off more than 200 victims.
The boastful criminal revealed his operation on January 18 last year, and by late July he was behind bars and his ill-gotten gains were being confiscated.
Qibaa’s scam involved exploiting the reporting systems of social media sites like Instagram so they would be locked, or simply hacking their passwords.
Then he demanded thousands of dollars in ransom money to reinstate them, in many cases requiring victims to pay ongoing fees to keep them unlocked.
But he wasn’t just shaking down influencers and businesses, he threatened the lives of those who refused to pay, or do business with him – and even their kids.
‘You think a group of little ghetto kids won’t come and eat you for $5k… You’re (sic) head will be a snack for the pigs in Sinaloa,’ one message read.
Another victim he sent photos showing a man in his car and then what he claimed was the same man on the ground with his face and shirt covered in blood.
‘Here’s the last guy that came to take photos/came near my home,’ he wrote.
A message to a third victim read: ‘The next photo my people send me will be you or ur husband like that lol.’
Court documents detailed his extortion and harassment of nine victims, including his dentist, landlord, real estate agent, and a politician’s daughter.
His landlord, initialed KD in the documents, rented Qibaa a house in Las Vegas for $9,750 a month in February 2024.
The next month, he complained that security guards at the gated community asked him for ID as he hadn’t picked up his transponder to open the gates.
He sent racial slurs to KD and neighbors made so many complaints that the homeowner association fined KD $5,000.
‘I’d rather take a life sentence for murdering you then this… I’ll go to jail happily,’ some of the messages read.
Qibaa also posted the details of the Gladstone Clinic, which KD owned, online and it got so many spam emails and calls it couldn’t function.
He also turned on the realtor by hacking her social media pages and posting porn on them, and trying to hack into her computer.
Qibba discovered that a woman he knew of was related to a prominent politician, and took her Instagram page down, then demanded money to reinstate it.
She and her partner refused to pay so he threatened their families, forcing them to pay $20,000 in Bitcoin in fear of their families’ safety.
Qibaa showed up at their house in Beverly Hills and smashed their white 2022 Bentley and white 2023 Mercedes parked in the driveway with a rock.
‘The windshields are just my way of showing you how easily I can touch you my self with my own hands… you ever cross me it’s over,’ he wrote.
The dentist was targeted after he repeatedly refused to do business with Qibaa, and told him to stop asking during their treatments in October 2023.
Qibaa retaliated in July 2024 by sending 700 threatening messages.
‘You’re dead dog f**king dead,’ ‘I will come and shoot you myself,’ and ‘I’m going to bury you for this s**t’ were some of the messages.
He also threatened the dentist’s children, listing their names and adding ‘Children-Main Targets’.
‘I just feel bad for ur kids. If you had one ounce of love or care for them you’d never dare speak to me this way or treat me this way,’ another text read.
One of Qibaa’s services offered on his website was to get other people’s social media profiles taken down, in exchange for money.
An influencer with 195,000 followers was one of those targets, after her dentist paid Qibaa to go after her.
Qibaa told her to search for the podcast and spammed her with 2,000 messages, along with threatening to ‘blast out’ her social security number.
He demanded $20,000 ransom for the Instagram and to leave her alone.
Joshua T, a business owner who ran two marijuana-related Instagram accounts, reached out to Qibaa asking if he could buy a username he had for sale.
Qibaa quoted a price of $4,000 to $5,000, which Joshua declined.
‘Qibba told JT that JT had wasted Qibaa’s time, blocked JT’s Instagram pages and demanded $10,000 to reinstate it,’ court documents detailed.
‘JT offered Qibaa $8,500 to reinstate the account, an offer Qibaa accepted.’
Qibaa then asked him to promote his Instagram page, which he initially agreed to, but confronted him when he found out there were other victims.
Qibaa was ‘irate’ and in December 2023, called JT and ‘threated to destroy him and his family’ and call his ex-wife’s lawyer and CPS on his children.
He demanded $10,000 to stop the harassment, but Joshua T blocked him instead. Qibaa responded by sending threats to his sister.
‘The guy that’s gonna murder your drug dealer brother. Tell him Unlocked says hi though. We have your entire family’s info,’ he sent her.
The extortionist also offered $10,000 to anyone who willing to stalk JT, through a Telegram channel called ‘Unblocked Uncensored’.
Another extortion victim, the owner of the OutlawArchive Instagram, suddenly found his account was locked.
Qibaa told him it would cost $12,000 to get it back and they set up a dinner on May 30, 2023, to discuss the details – but the victim canceled.
He responded by sending threatening messages, including one with his personal information
The victim got a restraining order but Qibaa just taunted him with more threatening messages.
‘Cute restraining order..last I checked you’re still gonna die,’ one read.
Qibaa offered a ‘$50,000 reward for whoever sleeps BO this week’ on the Unlocked Uncensored Telegram channel
The ordeal of another victim, initialed AT, in San Diego, started when he bought Instagram handle @ace from Qibaa for $25,000 – but never got access.
After being harassed, he offered to pay $10,000 for Qibaa to leave him alone, but instead was demanded $100,000 which he refused
AT started to receive threatening messages ‘as frequent as every other day. The caller made threats to shoot or injure AT’s daughter, fiancé, dog, business partners and their families’, the court documents detailed.
Qibaa’s campaign of terror and extortion was only stopped after he was cocky enough to spill the details on the No Jumper podcast.
‘You’re making $2 million a month off your Instagram and Telegraph,’ he explained.
‘I come and I take it away and make you pay for it back and I make it public and I post it and I expose you.
‘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 podcaster, Adam Grandmaison, asked why he would be so open about his clearly illegal methods – and Qibaa gave his most brazen response.
‘You guys can kill me; that’s the only option,’ he said.
But it was not the only option.
The FBI was tipped off about the podcast on April 1 last year, and investigated. By July, they found enough victims and evidence to arrest him on federal charges.
He was locked up as investigators found evidence indicating he was a serious flight risk.
‘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”,’ court documents detailed.
Qibaa pleaded guilty and faces 20 years’ jail for each of the extortion charge; 10 years for each of the money laundering charges; five years for the stalking charge; and five years for each of the threats to injure charges.
He will be sentenced on May 22 by District Judge Richard Boulware.