Do you think there are people in the world who don’t care about their reputation? Certainly there may be, but they would be a tiny minority. This is well known by some criminals, which leads to criminal practices such as sextortion or sexual extortion.
Although it is not something new, before the massification of the Internet these events occurred more or less locally; But nowadays these types of extortionists can search for possible victims from and anywhere on the planet.
That is why we invite you to read the following content, in which you will find all the information you need on the subject, which is undoubtedly the best way to prepare to avoid being a new victim.
What is sextortion or extortion on the Internet and what does it consist of?
The term sextortion is used to designate a form of blackmail, or attempted blackmail, for sexual reasons. This means that the criminal (s) threaten the victim with disseminating images or videos in which the latter appears mainly in erotic attitudes. sexual acts, topless or nude. Unethical use of the Internet, especially nowadays when most users connect through smart phones, it helps criminals to maximize their ability to do harm.
And this not only in the economic field, since the emotional effect can be devastating for the victim, who often happens to feel depressed already suffer panic attacks. Consequently, the smartphone usually becomes one of the tools most used by the online sexual extortionist, since his first threat is none other than sending the compromising material to many of these terminals, emphasizing those that are owned by friends and family.
Generally, what the extortionist is after is get money through this practice, but on occasions it can also step on land of the sexual exploitationl, since you can include among their demands that the victim send them more graphic or audiovisual material with erotic or sexual content, and there are even cases where request sexual favors directly.
Between the necessary conditions For sextortion to occur, the material that the offender will use exists and, of course, that it comes into his possession using various methods that we will see later. The latter places adolescents, as well as minors, among the most vulnerable groups of people and they are prone to being the target of this type of crime, since combined with their lack of experience to face sextortion.
It is easy to imagine that out of shame they avoid tell their parents what would be happening and instead choose to comply with the demands of the offender. Another issue to take into account when we talk about this group is that an important part of them are prone to online exhibitionism, something that becomes clear with the proliferation of a phenomenon such as the sexting, a practice they often engage in without being fully aware of the dangers and risks that this implies.
Another of the targets most persecuted by those who seek to profit from this crime, is undoubtedly among the people who may be leading a double life in such a way hidden, where in addition to the members of what we know as a community LGBT, It includes those who may have fallen into adultery.
Although sextortion is usually perpetrated mainly by professional criminal mafias that swarm the Internet, there have also been cases in which it is carried out ex-partners and some personal enemies. Without forgetting, of course, the so-called groomers, the pedophiles and cappers.
How does a sexual extortionist act in the digital world? Main methods used
Before addressing this part in depth, we must let you know that, in addition to sextortion, there are cases in which the offender is not doing anything other than try a scam, although both cases use material of sexual content for this purpose. As we have already said above, for someone to try to extort money from another under threat of publishing images of the victim that compromise their privacy, such images must exist.
Same that could get into the wrong hands intervening the webcam, or through theft of the victim’s devices. However, it is also possible that all this reaches the hands of unscrupulous individuals by other means, such as in the case of the theft of a victim’s device, or in the case that it has been recorded in a meeting where they are held daring activities and someone has been taking shots without her knowledge.
In any event that the images may have reached the extortionist’s hands, what one can be sure of is that he has dealt with investigate the situation economic of the victim. Based on that, he will begin to ask for a ransom that may vary depending on what he considers is available to the affected person. Too It may happen that you receive an email message, where you are told that the sender has in his possession material that commits you morally.
But without showing any proof of it, in which case it may be a attack launched randomly to see who falls. At this point it is good to emphasize, in the form of advice and warning, that you should never reply when you receive messages with these types of threats, far from paying, being the best and most convenient to report the fact to the authorities.
Increase security on social media to avoid being a victim of sextortion
Being the social networks a land where sextortion cases tend to proliferate worldwide, here we present you some tips that will be very useful to take care of your privacy.
With what you will see increase your security as a user of them:
On Facebook
The best thing you can do to avoid being a victim through your FB account, it is not another thing that anyone has access to your private. Also, you can reinforce everything deleting contacts at the first sign of an event of this nature.
On Instagram
In this case, you must block on contact immediately or anyone who send you compromising images, since the next step may be to ask you to do the same, from which you would be in a compromised situation.
On twitter
In this social network you must learn to be careful when you receive messages inviting you to meet people, since it is usually the first step to initiate a sextortion in this way, which then can be extended to your accounts on other networks.
On whatsapp
A lot watch out for group links those you join through this network present in the vast majority of smartphones, since cybercriminals use it for phone numbers and from there create databases that can be used for their sextortion attacks.
On Telegram
As in the rest of the social networks, This application is usually one of the main tools of criminals to advance random sextortion campaigns. This makes it necessary to always select new contacts very well, especially if you have met them through a group.
What does the law say about sextortion? Legal framework in Spain
Fortunately, most of countries include in their legislation articles against this type of crime, and Spain is no exception, since our legal framework clearly defines when we are facing an action punishable by crimes against privacy. And not only that, since in The criminal code We also see how Justice should act before the duress facts.
The same as the actions that must be carried out to punish crimes against sexual freedom, this in case the extortionist forces the victim to having sex without consent. However, none of this would be effective if sextortion cases are kept more or less anonymous, meaning that each of the victims dares to take the step and report the attacker. We say this because, unfortunately, the percentage of victims who go to the authorities is low.