Tomcat
Professional
- Messages
- 2,689
- Reaction score
- 949
- Points
- 113
Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok must urgently take action to combat sexual extortion.
Researchers have found that criminals openly sell online sexual extortion manuals on social media. This illegal practice is now called "sextortion". Tutorials and videos detail how to impersonate young girls online, trick the victim into sending intimate material, and then blackmail her.
Ransomware users actively share their experience on various platforms. One of them boasted that his victim regularly paid a certain amount "every Friday", succumbing to new threats. Other authors are proud to talk about the huge number of people they managed to deceive in this way.
Last month, the UK's National Crime Agency issued a warning to schools across the country, urging them to be vigilant over the threat of sextortion. Experts note a sharp increase in the number of children who are victims of sexual extortion committed by criminal groups from West Africa, mainly from Nigeria.
According to expert Paul Raffil, criminals purposefully find victims in social networks, studying the profiles of schoolchildren and pages of children's clubs by interests. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to such schemes.
According to the BBC, since October 2022 in the UK, two teenagers have committed suicide when faced with sextortion. The real number of victims, including in other countries, is obviously much higher. "Internet scammers have realized that they can get rich quickly and easily by deceiving defenseless users," explains Raffil. Oddly enough, in his opinion, boys are now most often affected.
The guides also describe in detail how to create untraceable phone numbers, fake social media profiles, and use secure methods to collect ransoms.
Lucy's 14-year-old son recently became a victim of such a gang. Although he did not send any images, the extortionists fabricated a compromising photo and demanded a ransom by text message, threatening to send the picture to all his contacts. The terrified teenager had already paid 100 pounds, but the parents intervened in time. They blocked the account and phone number, after which the scammers no longer made themselves felt.
This week, 33-year-old Olamaid Shanu appeared before the Westminster Court in London. According to the indictment, he is a member of a gang that engaged in sexual extortion against adults and children on the Internet. According to the investigation, in the last three years alone, this group could earn about 2 million pounds in ransoms from hundreds of victims.
Shanu is charged with extortion, money laundering and cyber harassment of at least four people, including a minor child. US authorities are seeking Shanu's extradition to Idaho, where he will be formally charged. This case is a clear example of the scale and danger of sextortion.
Experts have criticized major tech companies for not doing enough to combat ransomware on their social platforms. Raffil claims that "this scheme has spread dramatically on Instagram* and Snapchat over the past two years... platforms should actively speak out against such criminals." Representatives of Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok claim that they are really taking measures to counteract sextortion, introducing special options for complaints and developing educational programs for teenagers.
Researchers have found that criminals openly sell online sexual extortion manuals on social media. This illegal practice is now called "sextortion". Tutorials and videos detail how to impersonate young girls online, trick the victim into sending intimate material, and then blackmail her.
Ransomware users actively share their experience on various platforms. One of them boasted that his victim regularly paid a certain amount "every Friday", succumbing to new threats. Other authors are proud to talk about the huge number of people they managed to deceive in this way.
Last month, the UK's National Crime Agency issued a warning to schools across the country, urging them to be vigilant over the threat of sextortion. Experts note a sharp increase in the number of children who are victims of sexual extortion committed by criminal groups from West Africa, mainly from Nigeria.
According to expert Paul Raffil, criminals purposefully find victims in social networks, studying the profiles of schoolchildren and pages of children's clubs by interests. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to such schemes.
According to the BBC, since October 2022 in the UK, two teenagers have committed suicide when faced with sextortion. The real number of victims, including in other countries, is obviously much higher. "Internet scammers have realized that they can get rich quickly and easily by deceiving defenseless users," explains Raffil. Oddly enough, in his opinion, boys are now most often affected.
The guides also describe in detail how to create untraceable phone numbers, fake social media profiles, and use secure methods to collect ransoms.
Lucy's 14-year-old son recently became a victim of such a gang. Although he did not send any images, the extortionists fabricated a compromising photo and demanded a ransom by text message, threatening to send the picture to all his contacts. The terrified teenager had already paid 100 pounds, but the parents intervened in time. They blocked the account and phone number, after which the scammers no longer made themselves felt.
This week, 33-year-old Olamaid Shanu appeared before the Westminster Court in London. According to the indictment, he is a member of a gang that engaged in sexual extortion against adults and children on the Internet. According to the investigation, in the last three years alone, this group could earn about 2 million pounds in ransoms from hundreds of victims.
Shanu is charged with extortion, money laundering and cyber harassment of at least four people, including a minor child. US authorities are seeking Shanu's extradition to Idaho, where he will be formally charged. This case is a clear example of the scale and danger of sextortion.
Experts have criticized major tech companies for not doing enough to combat ransomware on their social platforms. Raffil claims that "this scheme has spread dramatically on Instagram* and Snapchat over the past two years... platforms should actively speak out against such criminals." Representatives of Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok claim that they are really taking measures to counteract sextortion, introducing special options for complaints and developing educational programs for teenagers.
