A Wayne County man told teens to send sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves, then threatened to leak the content if they didn’t send more, according to a criminal complaint.
Hassan Salloum, 20, of Dearborn Heights, is facing charges of sexual exploitation of a child including attempt, distribution of child pornography and receipt and possession of child pornography.
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In a criminal complaint unsealed to the public on May 8, 2026, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) detailed their findings in the case to press charges against Salloum.
Threatens Australian teen
The investigation into Salloum began in December 2024.
Australian police reached out to HSI, Cyber Crimes Center and Child Exploitation Investigations Unit on Dec. 18, 2024, about a suspect, later identified as Salloum, who had been sextorting a 13-year-old girl.
Police said Salloum was extorting and coercing the Australian teen to send sexually explicit images and videos of herself on Snapchat.
The 13-year-old girl added Salloum to her friends list on Snapchat and chatted with him. Police said the conversation quickly turned sexual in nature.
Salloum allegedly coerced the child into sending sexually explicit images and videos of herself, and he screenshotted the content. The teen then deleted the images and videos from her phone.
Salloum allegedly coerced more images and videos from her. When she refused, he threatened to “leak” her photos to others online.
Police said he sent threatening messages to send more content or he would leak a video, while also sending the 13-year-old a photo of his penis.
The teen then became very scared and told her mother what happened. Her mother took her to a local police station in Australia to report the matter.
The teen’s phone was seized. Investigators extracted the conversation between the girl and Salloum from Snapchat and found that he allegedly sent a video of the girl nude and captioned it “you have been leaked.” He then said," B---- why you not replying[?]"
In February 2025, after further investigation, police tracked the email address associated with the Snapchat account to an IP address, which led to finding Salloum’s address in Dearborn Heights.
It’s not clear what happened after investigators tracked Salloum’s information, including whether he was arrested or interviewed then.
Coerces, extorts Arizona teen
A police department in Arizona reached out to an HSI agent in Michigan on March 26, 2026, regarding Salloum. They said a 16-year-old girl was contacted on TikTok on Dec. 7, 2025, by Salloum, who told her he had explicit photos and videos of her and told her to add him on Snapchat.
Salloum introduced himself on Snapchat, then the teen blocked him. He messaged the teen on TikTok, telling her to add back his new Snapchat account. She did, and on Snapchat, he allegedly sent a screen recording showing about 15 explicit photos and videos of the teen.
Salloum told the teen to send him more explicit photos and videos, or he would “leak” the content to various social media platforms, including Instagram, X and Reddit.
On Dec. 8, police said the teen sent multiple nude images to Salloum. In the chat, he demanded that she say certain phrases and pose in certain positions.
When Salloum allegedly asked the teen to make a video of her performing oral sex to a male, she refused and ignored him.
Police said Salloum then made a second TikTok account and posted a photo in the comment section of the teen’s TikTok account showing a nude photo of her.
On Feb. 24, investigators received information from TikTok in response to a search warrant that showed the listed email address was associated with Salloum.
Search warrant
A federal search warrant was executed on May 1 at Salloum’s home in Dearborn Heights. There, they interviewed him.
Salloum said he spoke with the 16-year-old Arizona girl and believed she was 17. But he then said the way she was “teasing” him was like that of someone over 20 years old.
He also allegedly admitted to threatening to leak the nude images the teen had sent him. The criminal complaint also said Salloum admitted to receiving explicit videos of children as young as 14 years old.