One of the best things about smartphones is that they come equipped with high-quality cameras. Unfortunately, this also happens to be one of the worst things about them. Because, while a smartphone camera can be used to easily take photos of your favorite moments with loved ones, it can also be a tool that can cause immeasurable harm.
As taking outstanding photos and videos becomes easier and easier, so too does the possibility of getting carried away and taking the wrong kind of pictures and videos, which can put you in a compromising situation. You could quickly find yourself the victim of sextortion.
What is sextortion? The meaning explained
Sextortion is when someone obtains sexually related photos and videos of another person and threatens that person with exposure and humiliation if they don’t do as they demand.
Demands can be anything from paying money to producing more explicit photos and videos or providing sexual favors. Since the compromising material is usually digital in nature, the evidence is never really destroyed, even if they may promise to do so, and sextortion incidents can go on indefinitely.
Even if you don’t make photos and videos that are accidentally leaked, you can still become a sextortion victim. The rise of AI has enabled people to make realistic-looking deepfake nude photos. Some scammers don’t even have any material at all. They just bluff and make you think they do.
And don’t be misled into thinking that women are usually the victims. The most common victims are apparently teenage boys. One common threat in this area is when a hacker claims to have webcam footage of the victim visiting an adult website.
What does financial sextortion mean?
Financial sextortion is no different than common blackmail. It’s when someone has compromising material about you — real or invented — and demands money to prevent that material from being released to the public, usually the internet.
Like blackmail, financial sextortion is a crime and should be immediately reported to the police.
Who falls victim to sextortion scams most often?
Since sextortion can happen to innocent people thanks to the use of AI, there is no one-size-fits-all profile for usual victims. But we can provide 2 broad common examples.
Children and teenagers
The main at-risk group are children and teenagers, because they are at an age where they are extremely vulnerable and have very little or no life experience, especially in relationships.
The FBI has reported that from October 2021 to March 2023, they received over 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors. The sextortion involved at least 12,600 victims — primarily boys — and led to at least 20 suicides.
Teenagers are especially vulnerable at the age where they will be pressured by peers at school or college to start sexual relationships. If they are eager to please, they may have a momentary lapse of judgment and end up producing photos or videos that they will later regret, especially if it ends in a bad breakup or manipulation.
Individuals who have had bad breakups
The relatively recent trend of revenge porn is also becoming a growing problem. Individuals who are in a loving and trusting relationship may decide to make some photos and videos. But if that relationship turns sour, those sexual photos and videos can quickly be weaponized.
Revenge porn, like other forms of sextortion, is difficult to prosecute, but there are cases when people have been convicted and sent to prison.
How a sextortion scam happens
So, how does a sextortion scam happen? It comes in 2 distinct phases.
Phase 1: First contact
This is when the initial approach is made and the threat is presented. It can be an ex-partner with explicit material, a hacker who claims to have broken into the victim’s device and stolen media files, or somebody who has created convincing AI deepfakes.
In some cases, it’s someone with absolutely no material, but they are counting on you believing that they do. If they do have material, they may send you copies to prove that they have it.
Phase 2: The threat and the demand
Now comes the threat and the demand. The threat is often to publicly release the material (usually online) or provide copies to family, friends, and employers. All the victim has to do is send a specific amount of money to stop it from happening. They may also ask for more explicit material or sexual favors.
The blackmailer will pile on the pressure by giving the victim only a day or 2 to agree to the demand, and they will likely threaten the victim with dire consequences if they tell anyone, especially the police. Payments are usually demanded via cryptocurrency, so it becomes notoriously difficult to trace the payments later.
Although a blackmailer may promise to destroy the material after payment has been made, they usually don’t. Instead, they will simply come back for more later.
Common sextortion techniques
The following are some common sextortion techniques that perpetrators will frequently use because they work so well.
Romance
If the victim is vulnerable — such as a teenager or someone with a mental disorder — they may be feeling lonely or isolated. So when someone expresses romantic interest, they may throw all caution to the wind because they are so happy to be wanted and desired.
When the extortionist then asks for explicit photos and videos, the victim may be more than happy to comply, thinking they can trust them.
Grooming
This begins when someone starts subtly broaching sexually related subjects in conversations to test the waters and judge the reaction of a person. The term is often used to refer to child grooming, but adult grooming is also quite common.
By moving slowly, they can, in effect, make the victim feel that discussing sex is perfectly normal and harmless. Consequently, when the request finally comes for photos and videos, the victim is desensitized enough not to worry too much about it.
Getting access to devices
Smartphone cameras are used for a variety of things these days. This could include making material for your own private viewing, never intending for it to see the light of day.
But, whether a device is hacked or unprotected and accessed directly, someone with access to your device could start transferring material to an anonymous email or another device via iOS’s AirDrop.
AI deepfakes
This is the easiest sextortion route to take because it requires the least effort. Someone can pull a victim’s photo off of a social media page and use widely available and cheap AI apps to add the person’s face to a nude body.
The level of detail and believability in AI’s capabilities have become absolutely shocking. From there, all the blackmailer has to do is send it by email or WhatsApp, demand payment, sit back, and wait.
Sextortion explained in more detail
The subject of sextortion raises many questions, so we’ve tried to answer them all below.
Yes, sextortion is a crime. It is exactly like any other extortion and blackmail crime. If you are a victim, you should report it to the police immediately.
If you ignore a sextortionist, they will most likely release a portion of the compromising material to get your attention. If you continue to ignore them, they will likely release the rest of the material and move on to another victim.
If you have already paid the sextortionist and it is transparently obvious that the nightmare will never end, you must report the matter to the police. You should also try to remove the person’s leverage, if possible, by voluntarily admitting what is in the photos or videos.
A sextortion email is definitely something to worry about, but you should first figure out if photos and videos of that nature could possibly exist in the first place. Ask to see proof that they really have them.
If you report the matter to the police and they witness the sextortionist making threats and demands, you can definitely press charges. Whether it results in a trial and conviction is, of course, another matter entirely.
Since the material is likely digital in nature, you will never have any guarantees that the photos and videos have been “destroyed.” There may always be copies out there. That’s why it’s essential that you never pay any money. Instead, go to the police immediately.
Red flags to look for to spot a sextortion scam
You can reduce the chances of becoming a victim of sextortion by spotting any of the following red flags.
A stranger appears completely out of the blue
Although a scammer could be an ex-partner or someone you know at school, the vast majority of these people are simply strangers who contact you out of nowhere. They could get your details from social media, a school yearbook, or a hacked smartphone’s contacts app.
Be particularly careful when using apps like Telegram, which is not immune to its share of scams.
Things escalate from 0 to 100 in seconds
When having a normal conversation with someone, you don’t immediately express feelings for them. You don’t profess love for someone after only talking to them for, say, an hour. You instead spend a lot of time getting to know them (and they spend time getting to know you).
If a person you’re talking to very quickly changes the subject to sudden love and overwhelming passion and then asks for pictures, walk away.
What to do if you’re being blackmailed with intimate photos or videos
So, you’ve received a threat and demand. What now? There are 3 very clear steps you must follow to the letter.
Verify that they have the material
The first step is to remain calm and find out what materials the blackmailer has (if anything.) Even if you’re panicking, don’t show that you are. Be cool. Play hardball and demand proof.
If they refuse, they likely have nothing. But if they send something, you will know the threat is real.
By staying calm and assertive, you’re showing that you are not the pushover the blackmailer thought you were. It may also make them think twice about what they’re doing.
Stall for time
The blackmailer will ask for the payment to be made quickly. The longer it goes on, the greater the chance that the whole scheme could go off the rails and lead to them getting caught. Applying a short time window also puts pressure on the victim.
Don’t give in to the pressure. You need to slow-walk it. Demand time to find the money (if that’s what they want). If they want it faster, firmly hold your ground. Remove the pressure and stress from the situation so you can think rationally about your next steps.
Don’t pay the ransom
Your natural instinct may be to just pay the person and hope that will be the end of it. But it likely won’t be. Why would the scammer destroy their leverage over you? Once they know you’re willing to pay, they will probably keep coming back for more.
The more common sense approach is to simply remove the threat. And, no, we’re not talking about breaking the person’s legs. What we mean is not keeping it a secret. Tell your family. Report it to the police. Once you have admitted it to the world, the extortionist will know that there is no incentive for you to pay their price.
In some cases, an admission may end a marriage, destroy a relationship, or result in termination from a job. But what’s worse? Facing the consequences, or paying someone endlessly who will torment you for years?
If the material in question is an AI deepfake, you can rally support from your loved ones in the face of the obvious scam being inflicted upon you.
Don’t be overly worried about your reputation being damaged. People’s attention spans and memories are shorter than you might think. After a while, they will forget all about it. There may be some short-term embarrassment, but it’s nothing worth considering suicide over (which, tragically, many people have resorted to in the face of sextortion).
How to report sextortion
If you decide to take the brave step of reporting a sextortion attempt, the first step is to contact the police. A female victim can ask for a female detective, and a male victim may feel more comfortable talking to a male detective. You may find it easier to talk to your parents, a sibling, or perhaps a trusted teacher. They can then help you approach the police.
File the police report and give them copies of all communications with the blackmailer, as well as copies of any compromising material they may have sent you.
There are organizations that help remove these types of images and other media if they have already been leaked online. Here are a few:
- The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children operates a tip line where you can anonymously report an incident. They also operate Take It Down, a service that helps with the removal of sexually explicit photos and videos taken of victims under the age of 18.
- StopNCII is a British platform where you can submit material that you want removed from the internet. In a cruel, ironic twist of fate, StopNCII has warned of the existence of fake versions of their site, put in place to capture nude photos and videos that are submitted.
How do social media platforms address sextortion?
Since many victims of sextortion are picked from social media platforms, these sites have a moral and legal responsibility to try to protect their users.
So, where do 2 of the big-name social media platforms stand on the issue of sextortion?
Instagram’s policies against sextortion
To their credit, Instagram has done a lot of work in this area and continues to do a lot of work protecting children and teenagers:
- Any Instagram user under the age of 16 is restricted from being contacted via chat by an adult they are not connected to on the platform.
- Instagram is apparently testing the ability to identify potential sextortionists on the platform and hiding young users’ accounts from them. That said, you have to ask yourself why Instagram doesn’t just shut down sextortionists’ accounts and be done with it.
- Instagram has filters and safeguards in place to instantly detect nudity in images and videos and remove them from the site.
- Victims can easily report incidents to Instagram.
Snapchat’s safeguards against sextortion
It could be argued that Snapchat has a greater imperative to crack down on sextortion, since Snapchat is overwhelmingly used by teenagers. But what they are offering in terms of safety measures seems rather lackluster compared to Instagram.
Some of the safety features Snapchat has rolled out include:
- Users are warned when they are messaged by someone if that person has been reported by other users. The message recipient can block the sender with one click.
- Location data for someone can now be even more restricted, stopping potential scammers from finding out where victims live.
- Friend requests to teens from accounts with no mutual friends and coming from “areas associated with scammers” will be automatically blocked. This is a bit of a strange one. Are there really known geographical areas where scammers hang out together?
Unlike on Instagram, there seems to be no explicit image detection on Snapchat.
How to stay safe from sexual extortion threats
Before we finish here today, let’s run through some tips on how to stay safe from sexual extortion threats.
Don’t make any explicit material in the first place
Although this doesn’t protect you from any AI deepfake material, it is nevertheless an essential reminder. Your best bet is to never create any explicit material in the first place. And if you do insist on making it, don’t share it.
Exercise caution on social media
Many sextortionists find their victims on social media and pull photos from social media accounts to use as AI material. If you post photos of yourself barely dressed, this is material that can potentially be used against you later.
Be extremely careful what you post online, and review your security settings. Not everything has to be public.
Be wary of online approaches from strangers
A stranger who appears out of the blue and wants to chat could be harmless. But then again, they may not be. The key is to be careful about what you say and reveal. Be very reserved until you find out who the person is and what they want.
If the topic swiftly turns to sex, end the conversation. If they ask for explicit material, immediately end the conversation and block them.
Secure your devices
As we previously noted, one of the ways people get compromising information on someone is through physical access or remote access to their devices, such as a phone. Remote access could be gained through a malware-infected link that you click on, while physical access would include a stolen device being used to transfer material.
The easy way to avoid these scenarios is to make sure that your phone has a screen PIN (and not one that is easily figured out — no birthdays!). If you have an iPhone, consider enabling FaceID. And to avoid malware infections, install an anti-malware app and run regular scans.
Sextortion can ruin people’s lives. In some cases, it can even make people want to end their lives.
The person making the demands may not properly think through their actions, seeing a victim as nothing more than a means to an end. But the consequences of sextortion can be devastating, life-changing, and, in many cases, tragic.
The message to take away from all of this is that you must exercise extreme caution if you choose to create explicit images and videos, especially when it comes to who you share them with. And if you are threatened, it’s essential that you don’t give in to their demands. Instead, go to the police.
