Sextortion in the Philippines With Mariana Van Zeller

National Geographic's television show Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana Van Zeller features the host traveling around the world documenting the dark underbelly of society. In season 4 episode 2 Mariana investigates sextortion. The trail leads her to the Philippines.

The program begins in Utah where Mariana discusses the case of a teenager named Jake. He was contacted on Facebook by a beautiful woman.  But she did not want to play unless he sent her a full body nude picture. He saved their conversation which went as follows:

Scammer: Take a full body nude photo and then we can play.  

Jake: How do I know I cont trust you?  

Scammer: We are just going to play no need for trust issues. 

Of course the scammer immediately threatens to send his picture to all his friends and family unless he wires money. Jake begs them to stop but they refuse. Jake then kills himself. 

But thankfully he saved all the messages and in his suicide note he told his mom to check the messages so she can find the address to where he wired money. It is the Philippines. 

Mariana Van Zeller hopes to track down Jake's extortionist who is using the name Mariz Abril. She meets a contact, a journalist who investigates cybercrime. He describes sextortion as: 

This is a calling, a passion this is no easy job. Becasue it's risky, really risky. 

Mariana asks her contact:

Why is the Philippines such a center of sextortion?

He says:

First thing, we're an English speaking country. They are familiar on how to befriend to build the trust and relationship to their victims. Number two, they can easily work without authorities noticing them. 

She then makes her way to Angeles City and talks to a trans dancer named Yumi. 

Yumi turned to scamming during the pandemic. She befriended an older German man online. When he suggested they get sexy she started recording. Yumi then threatened to send the video to his wife and son if he did not send money. He sent the money but not everyone has though she has not followed through on her threats to spread the photos and videos.

Mariana then follows the trail to Bulacan where she speaks with "Claudia." She is not a lone wolf but works as a scammer in a large organization with cubicles and management. This is where she segues into talking about the Queen of Sextortion, Maria Caparas.

On her hunt for Maria she talks with a man named Jamie who worked for her. 

Before the pandemic he participated in transsexual pageants for money. During the lockdown he turned to sextortion. 

During the pandemic I didn’t have a heart because at that time I did not have savings. I had absolutely no money. I was really super evil. That’s how I was. I didn’t have a heart for them. Even if you would die in front of me, I wouldn’t care as long as I get what I want.

It was Maria Cabereras who taught him the sextortion racket. 

Someone came to our place. A woman. This Woman was very rich. She became like a mother to us, a “madam.” She was the one who taught us how to do the scam. 

Mariana Van Zeller then drives to North Hill hoping to find Maria Caparas. Before setting out she talks to a man named "Peter" who is a government official who has "witnessed the corruptive power of the sextortion industry first-hand."

Mariana: You don’t want your face shown.

Peter: The far reach of the criminal syndicates can be very…how would you put it? 

Mariana: Dangerous? 

Peter: Mhmm. Even in the level of government, you can never really tell who is taking pay, who is taking cuts. And everyone is involved from the local level up to the mid-level government executives, and then I believe high up. 

Peter has more to say about corrupt politicians being complicit in the sextortion industry. 

In terms of corruption level, I guess we’re turning into Mexico and Colombia in so far as extortion is concerned. That’s what I fear the most. 

They invest in their security. They invest heavily on firepower. Rubbing elbows with bigwig politicians around our jurisdiction and other provinces as well. So, her power and influences just goes far reaching. 

Driving into North Hill Mariana is worried about appearing conspicuous. Even so she asks a random woman on a motorcycle where Maria Caparas lives. The woman says follow me and takes her to City Hall where she can find residential records. The women on duty say Maria does not live in town anymore but her sister does. They agree to take Mariana to meet Maria's sister but then one of the women makes a phone call. 

It turns out to be a bust as the local producer says they have to leave town as everyone is alarmed by the cameras and the cops want to know what they are doing. But it's not a total loss as Mariana finds a contact in the Bulacan Jail named Diego who has been involved with sextortion. 

Diego claims he watched one of the men he was sextorting kill himself on camera. 

Mariana: We spent time in the Untied States with families who lost their sons because they committed suicide because of sextortion.

Diego: Really? 

Mariana: You never heard of this? No one ever said, "I'm going to kill myself if you continue asking me for money, blackmailing me?"

Diego: Yes

Mariana: Did they kill themselves?

Diego: Yes

Mariana: They died?

Diego: Yes

Mariana: How did you find out he killed himself? 

Diego: Because the camera of his laptop was on. 

Mariana: Oh my god that's horrible. And you saw it happening? 

Diego: Yes.

Mariana: What did you say? Didn't you ask him to stop?

Diego: We chatted him, but he set up a rope and committed suicide. 

Only Diego knows if that is a truthful confession but Mariana appears to believe and its shock value certainly makes for good television. 

And that is really it. This 45 minute program is nothing but a shock piece. Sure there is a massive problem in the Philippines with cybercrime including sextortion. But the online child exploitation market is bigger. Mariana says:

Combating sextortion requires updated legislation, significant resources, and collaboration between law enforcement agencies around the world. But these things rarely happen, so these crimes continue. As does the pain they cause. 

Actually, these things DO happen. Fighting online child sex abuse is a multi-country effort in the Philippines. Therefore it should be easy to combat sextortion. However, as Mariana van Zeller notes, the Queen of sextortion, Maria Caparas, has been arrested many times but is ALWAYS inexplicably released. Obviously she has help from people higher up the food chain. 

The difference between sextortion and online child sexual abuse is the difference between people who foolishly and willingly send their nudes to strangers and children who are forced into being abused. At no point in this story does Mariana suggest people should stop sending nudes to strangers on the internet. Just think right now how many pictures of nude white men are being sent through the ether and into the Philippines. It is rather hilarious to think the Philippines is bombarded with the digital signals of nude white men.