A 12-year-old woman took her own life in the town of Ingeniero Maschwitz, in the Buenos Aires party of Escobar. The girl was found in the back of the house, hanging with a sheet from the highest branch of a tree and authorities who made a tragic incident with the link to the macabre game of Momo.
In recent weeks on social networks viralizado a terrifying image: Momo. A woman's face with protruding bulging eyes, excessively white skin and a macabre smile. A complete combo to spread panic.
In Facebook groups used that dark image (which is actually a work of art that was exhibited in a museum in Japan in 2016) to give creation to Momo. In one publication, anonymous users shared a phone number and challenged people to engage in a WhatsApp dialogue with an unknown number (prefix +81, from Japan), which used the profile of the figure as a profile picture.
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The Computer Crime Investigation Unit of the Attorney General of the State of Tabasco, Mexico (UIDI), reported that "several users said that if you sent a message to 'Momo' from your cell phone, it would respond with violent and aggressive images" and they added that "there are some who claim that they have answered the messages with threats and reveal personal information."
The truth is that day by day its dissemination was increasing more, becoming dangerous because, especially young people and minors, began to provide personal information and obey orders from this mysterious person behind the phone.
Even as often happens in these cases, imitators who repeated the 'modus operandi' were emerging. The macabre game crossed oceans, borders, arrived in Argentina and this Wednesday the alarms were ignited with the suicide of the girl of 12 years.
"The girl filmed all the previous sequence on her cell phone, so the researchers in charge of the case shuffled the hypothesis that the suicide was induced. In the images, we see how the baby follows several steps until it begins with self-suffocation, tying a sheet to her neck until she hangs herself. The recording is being analyzed by the experts, "the newspaper Perfil reported on the incident.
Authorities are investigating whether he did so to perform "an extreme test" of the Momo Game. If confirmed, it would be the first victim in Argentina of the new and dangerous viral challenge ", adds the same media.
The phenomenon spread throughout the world, from the United States, France, Germany to Spain, even in the latter country the National police spoke on the issue and warned: "It is better to forget about absurd challenges that are fashionable in WhatsApp" .
Days ago the word 'Momo' had already been heard in our country because of a case that was registered in the north, more precisely in Jujuy. On that occasion a family living in Perico complained to the police that they received death threats from Momo.
In the complaint filed in section 21 of the town of Jujuy, it was reported that a 16-year-old boy began receiving death threats from that telephone number. Even the intimidating messages continued after the complaint.
As reported by El Tribuno newspaper, to contact 'Momo' you have to respect four rules: "You can only contact him at 03:00 in the morning and you can not allow him to write you twice in a row. You can not be repetitive and if you fail twice 'you will disappear from the planet without leaving a trace' ".
The authorities, alerted by the situation, ask caution to parents so that children and adolescents avoid all contact with people who use that image to take advantage of or induce to do things to children. In addition, the BBC World detailed that cyber crime specialists advise "not to promote the chain of messages and not contact unknown numbers to avoid falling into scams, extortion and other threats."
Similarities with the 'blue whale'
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The macabre game has many similarities with that of the "blue whale". In April of 2017 it went viral on this challenge that included 50 challenges in 50 days (one per day) that ended as a final test with the young people induced to commit suicide: "Jump from a very tall building, take your life".