Sexual blackmail occurs when sexual blackmail videos or photos are used to extort sexual favors from victims. This blackmail material is often obtained through social media or sexting. Unlike sextortion, online blackmail scammers tend to target men to extort money.
Post in sextortion blog: Unfortunately, this happens all the time, all over the world. Recently, South Korea identified a male cybercriminal, who blackmailed at least 74 women, including minors, to produce sexually degrading videos of themselves. He posted these in pay-to-view chat rooms.
Research shows scammers are making up to $500,000 from sexual blackmail in just a matter of months.
Sexual blackmail videos via webcams
Extortion through webcams is also a concern for those who use webcams for online flirting or cybersex. In these cases, a cybercriminal will pose as someone else – often an attractive individual – and initiate sexual contact with a victim. The cybercriminal shows the victim a pre-recorded video of a performer from a cybersex webcam site. During the video, the criminal messages the victim at times when the video performer appears to be typing on the keyboard. This creates the illusion that the performer is messaging them, which makes it seem legit. Then, the victim is persuaded to undress in front of the webcam and engage in sexual acts, like masturbation. While doing so, the cybercriminal records this and will reveal their real intent, demanding money or more sexual acts through threatening to publicly share the sexual blackmail videos to other sites and family and friends of the victim. In some cases, threats include making false allegations of paedophilia against the victim, known as webcam blackmail. These webcam scams often target men.
eWhoring – online blackmail for money
eWhoring – online blackmail for moneyeWhoring is another form of online blackmail for money through cybersexual contact. An analysis of over 620,000 posts made by 73,000 people on popular hacking forums shows how scammers catch their victims. You can find the research here.
Sexual blackmail by former partners
In Australia, Anastasia Powell of RMIT University surveyed over 4,000 people. One in ten individuals said they’d been threatened with the release of sexual material of themselves. Most of these threats came from former partners. “Less common were threats from unknown people,” according to Powell. “Approximately 1 in 20 victims of a threat to distribute a nude or sexual image said it came from a stranger.”
Because our cybercrime detectives investigate sexual blackmail on a regular basis, we know the hardship victims face. Unfortunately, the amount of angst and shame too often results in suicide.
We urge all victims to SAVE all proof, don’t delete anything. Use the proof to go to the police. Don’t let shame stop you from seeking help. If the police won’t or can’t help, our investigators can assist in identifying the individual blackmailing you.
What to do
In most cases of sexual blackmail, the perpetrator wants victims to pay money or do sexual favors. Don’t pay the ransom and don’t perform any sexual favors. Paying money will only give the perpetrator more power and confidence that he can get more money out of you. A sexual favor will not satisfy the perpetrator, and he will only want more. It also gives perpetrators more material as they will often record or screenshot the victim undress or masturbate in front of the camera, giving them more material to sexually blackmail you.
Save all evidence: Make screenshots of everything: communications, materials, specific times, and dates. This will help you build a chronological story to present to the police.
With this evidence, go to the local police and ask for help. If the police can’t help, our investigators can help identify the perpetrator. We identify perpetrators through texts, calls, emails, social media channels, online platforms, and more, on a daily basis. We can help identify your perpetrator as well so you can end this extortion.
