Published: 6th of August, 2022

In the year 2012, a Scottish teen threw himself over a bridge, committing suicide. He was a victim of a cybercrime that has now become so rampant that a new word has been coined for it, “sextortion.” Nowadays, there are sharks all over the world preying on unsuspecting victims. These sharks have taken to the internet, using it as a vehicle for organized crime.

At the same time, more and more people are turning to the internet to find a romantic partner. This has given rise to hundreds of online dating sites, and social media groups which seek to connect persons from different geographical locations. While some of these hookups are healthy and fruitful, many are disastrous. Sextortion is one of the reasons why.

Sextortion, to put it simply, is blackmailing someone for money after tricking them into sending nude photos during an intimate conversation. The criminal threatens to splatter the nudes to close friends and family of the victim unless he or she pays up. Most of the time, the victim is a male, and the criminal is a female or a male pretending to be a female. In many instances, police discovered that females were being held at gunpoint and forced to play roles in these types of crimes.

Usually, the victim feels so embarrassed that he feels compelled to submit to the demands of the criminal, often begging them not to share the nudes. This is a mistake. Once they see that you are weak, they will take full advantage of you. If you send them money, there will be no end to it – perhaps only until your life ends. And they will probably still splatter your photos across the internet. The secret is to block the criminal from WhatsApp, Facebook, and all forms of communication. Before blocking them, tell them that you don’t give a f*** what they do with the photos, and that they can have fun sharing them. When they see that there is no profit to be made from your photos, they won’t bother to share it.

But the better solution, however, is never to find yourself in a situation like this. That is, don’t send nudes to anyone over the internet, no matter how long you’ve been talking or how real or sweet they may seem. Be careful also of the kind of information you share with strangers you meet on dating sites, or through social media in general.

More people than you can imagine are becoming victims of sextortion everyday. You can help us fight it by raising awareness. Share this article.