Sextortion - from Harmless Flirtation to Organized Blackmail | Antivirus

The term "sextortion" is made up of the English words sex and extortion - blackmail. Sextortion is about sexual blackmail. What begins as a harmless flirtation ends with high demands for money. The scammers trick their victims into undressing in front of the webcam and performing sexual acts on themselves. They then blackmail their bona fide chat partners.

With sextortion, the person concerned first gets to know a stranger via a social network such as Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, or Facebook. The person concerned and the stranger communicate with each other. To persuade the potential victim to undress in front of their webcam and perform sexual acts on themselves, the perpetrators quickly redirect communication to videotelephony. They record these sexual acts and then threaten to publish this video or picture on the Internet if the required amount of money is not paid.

In another variant of sextortion, the perpetrators send their victims a blackmail letter by email, in which they claim to have recorded compromising sex videos of their victim and then demand money so that they are not published. Such emails are often sent en masse as spam emails without a specific target.

The "sextortion" phenomenon mostly affects men, but women can also be affected. The masterminds are usually organized in gangs, operate from abroad, or use so-called bots to distribute their extortion letters by email.

How to Protect Yourself from "sexual Blackmail"

• Do not accept friend requests from strangers.
• Check your account and privacy settings regularly.
• Be cautious about disclosing personal information such as an address, date of birth, or employer.
• Don't rush to agree to a video chat.
• If in doubt: tape off the chat camera first so that you can only communicate verbally and observe what is happening.
• Don't consent to video chatting exposures or intimate acts if you've only recently met the person.
• Always keep operating and virus protection systems on your online devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, or computers up-to-date to protect yourself against malicious software, so-called malware. There is malware out there that can easily activate your webcam and use it to film you at any time.

So You Are Safe on The Move with The Internet and Social Media

With sextortion, blackmailers contact their unsuspecting victims over the Internet. Other scams also find their victims on the Internet or on social networks. You can find out more about this on the following pages:

More Tips on Dangers on The Internet

• Safely on the go via chat, Insta, Facebook, and Co. on Klicksafe

In Case You're Already Being Blackmailed

• Do not transfer money. The blackmail usually doesn't stop after the payment.
• Report it to the police.
• Contact the operator of the site and arrange for the image material to be deleted. Inappropriate content can be reported to the site operator using buttons specially set up for this purpose.
• Immediately break off contact with the anonymous person, do not respond to messages.
• Save the chat history and messages using a screenshot.
• Invest in internet security like Protegent360's Antivirus.