JEDDAH: Fourteen blackmailers who extorted money from women in the UAE and Saudi Arabia after threatening to publish their pictures on social media websites have been arrested by Palestinian security personnel, a local daily reported on Monday.

Saudi authorities contacted police in the West Bank and informed them about the activities of the ring after a Saudi girl reported she was being blackmailed.

The 19-year-old girl told local police that a man on social media fooled her when he coaxed her to send her photograph, which he later threatened to publish unless she remitted money to him in Palestine, the daily said.

It said Saudi authorities contacted the Palestinian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who informed the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank about the case. “Palestinian authorities raided some houses and arrested all the suspects. Officials there said the suspects, if convicted, will be jailed for at least one year,” it said. The report did not say how many women were victimized by the blackmailing ring.