Kidnappers from cyber space

27 July 2015 - 09:10 By KATHARINE CHILD

Cape Town model Shamiel Hagee couldn't understand why people whom he had no recollection of meeting approached him as an acquaintance - until he learned that he had been digitally kidnapped. Topless photos of him were being used by someone called Warren Davids on his Facebook profile.He was alerted to this three weeks ago when someone came across Davids' profile."I was shocked. I thought this only happened overseas," Hagee said.He was able to get Facebook to remove the profile, but Davids has not been traced.Since Hagee highlighted his story, he said, about 20 people had contacted him to say their photos had been stolen on Facebook and used elsewhere.One woman found her photo had been used on a dating website.But there is an even creepier side to digital kidnapping.Some users are stealing baby pictures on Instagram and pretending the child is theirs in the online game Baby Roleplay.Child rights expert Joan van Niekerk said: "Parents should be careful what photos of their children they post to Facebook and who can see them."She said she knows of instances of innocent photos of children or teenagers being copied from social media, Photoshopped and used in pornography...

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