Sextortion as part of Romance Fraud.
Sex+Extortion=Sextortion
Sextortion can be a stand alone fraud as well as part of romance fraud. Anyway that is used is a violation of the victim’s dignity and privacy in the most vile way and can come with the most devastating consequences.
Victims can be anyone of any age, but the most damage is done to the teenagers we see targeted who are then blackmailed and cannot deal with the threatened outcomes and sadly take their life.
Whatever the intent, the connection would start with a fake profile. After some time, the fraudster will lead the conversation to be sexy and intimate. In most instances the criminal will be the first to send an intimate image or video. These images will of course not be of the actual criminal but those collected from other victims or from those adult actors or onlyfans profiles. In some circumstances, when intimate images ‘with the right face’ are not available, technology has now provided these criminals with AI powered software to literally ‘undress’ a normal dressed photo and turn it into an intimate image.
In some cases, the criminal will use coercive tactics to push the victim into returning images of themselves. With younger victims, they may push by making them feel ‘not cool’ by refusing. Peer pressure is huge at this age. They may suggest that the victim is hiding something weird, or that they are clearly immature if they don’t want to participate in the fun.
For romance fraud victims, this part of the emotional manipulation may seem the next step in a long distance relationship. Should they still be hesitant, the criminal would send images first and then make the victim feel fear of rejection or loss of the relationship by making suggestions such as ‘you clearly don’t trust me like I do you’, ‘I obviously love you more than you love me’, ‘I’m so disappointed, I thought we were on the same page’. Should this manipulation still not work, the criminals will resort to using the same software to undress some images, when the time for blackmailing comes along.
In romance fraud, this blackmail generally happens at the end of the fraud, when all other options have been exhausted or the criminal has been challenged or told that the game is up.
The person who for months, even years has been part of your life in a very intense way, who groomed and love bombed to make you feel like the only person in their world, will take off their mask and reveal themselves for what they really are. The threats will emerge, you might block them from everywhere but they will come back at you with other numbers or emails.
They will tell you they have your pictures and they will post them, or that they will send them to the friends, family or work colleagues you’ve talked about. Frequently, they will have screen grabbed your friends list and will threaten to send the pictures on messenger or instagram.
How does this fraud work? They have to make you fear enough that you will try to stop them, by agreeing to their demands and sending the money they ask for. Will this help? Will this stop them? No. If you send money, they will only ask for more. So what is the best thing to do?
- You don’t respond at all.
- You report the threatening messages by holding down the message and tapping the report option. Follow the menu to find the option for sexual images and blackmail. These menus differ slightly on each on platform but are quite self explanatory.
- Block this and any other profile you know is associated with this criminal.
- Make sure everything on your profile is private including friends lists and past profile pictures on Facebook.
- Temporarily disable your social media profiles.
- Safeguarding step by step guides for all these actions on all platforms, can be found on LoveSaid here.
- If the criminals also have your phone number or email and you are on another chat app, then consider deleting that app (you may have been asked to download it by the criminal).
- If it is an app you use frequently with others, it is best to organise a new number immediately and to change your email. This may seem severe and a lot of work but these criminals are relentless and they will always come back if they have your contact details and they may also sell your details to other criminals where you will be targeted in other frauds.
These fraudsters can only make you fear, if they can contact you. If they have no way to contact you, they cannot make you fear and they will, in most cases go away.
Should the criminal already have posted your images somewhere, there are things that can be done. An organisation called SWGfL runs the Revenge Porn Helpline, you can find them here. This page has contacts with platforms like Meta and they can help get images removed. In the UK, posting intimate images without consent IS illegal. If the criminal is in the UK, there is some availability to free legal advice. It can be found here also.
Read my blog on Sextortion here.