Last Updated on July 7, 2023
‘Sextortion.’ The word is being seen more and more commonly in today’s ever-accelerating world. If you’ve been following recent news, you might have heard the story of a St. Paul man who recently was charged in an online sextortion scheme (credit to CBS News Minnesota & Jonah Kaplan for the coverage). The man in question, Yue Vang, 31, was impersonating young men and women online and luring similarly under-aged individuals into his sinister criminal plot, affecting countless lives – over 500 young women, and likely more, according to CBS Minnesota. If Vang had so many victims, that begs the question of what is sextortion? How does it work? How do people like Vang operate, and why? We’ll cover the A to Z’s of sextortion for you in this article today.
Sextortion – A New (Old) Epidemic
When you hear the words ‘online blackmail’, most often the situation being referred to is a case of sextortion. Sextortion is, in short, a confidence scheme perpetrated in the hopes of gaining illicit materials for the intent to extort money or further favors. This scam is almost as old as the internet. It has seen a rise in frequency since the events of 2020’s global pandemic. Let’s break down the steps of a sextortion scam, in detail:
- Stranger contacts a potential victim online. Typically claiming to be someone around their same age and of a gender the target may find of interest.
- Sextortionists strike up general, often seemingly innocent conversation at first, asking seemingly innocuous questions. Depending on the communication platform in use. Some may go more strongly into the next step, if communications began on an online dating app.
- After gathering more information sextortionists will move their conversations into more intimate, sexual realms of topics, usually sending pictures and videos of their own to entice the potential victim into sending some back.
- After a perpetrator has received media back from the sextortion victim, this is where things go haywire: sextortionists will then demand sums of money or more media, with the threat to release the content they already have to the sextortion victim’s friends, family, and colleagues should they not comply.
Almost every sextortion scam follows this basic outline – though variants do exist. In this way, sextortion is also an umbrella term for the family of online blackmail scams. Let’s analyze now the various additional formats of the scheme.
A Scam of Many Colors – The Different Types of Blackmail
When answering the question of ‘what is sextortion’, there can be many answers that all sound quite similar. As we mentioned above, sextortion scams continue to evolve and differentiate in myriad ways. And novel situations are occurring daily. Whether these new variations take strong root is all dependent on how effective they are. But there are several that have continued, even despite wide coverage and educational efforts.
The first type of sextortion scam is the one that adheres most closely to the outline we provide in the first section and is sometimes known as Facebook Sextortion. Though this type of scam is often named after the godfather of social media platforms.
The more accurate way to refer to this scam is as a ‘Social Media Sextortion’ scam. The major difference across the varying platforms is the amount of information and breadth of followers/friends/contacts sextortionists have access to. Another reason they ask as many ‘innocent-seeming questions up front. As we mentioned before, to gather more information to cross-reference sextortion victims on other social media sites.
REVENGE PORN
Another similar form to the most basic setup is revenge porn. The major difference between revenge porn situations and sextortion scams is that, in revenge porn, the party being sextorted is typically familiar with their blackmailer, rather than being approached anonymously. Most often, this situation occurs when a jilted partner threatens to expose their ex online, with either the intent to extort, coerce, or simply to defame. The typical revenge porn situation arises locally and can be dealt with through judiciary action more effectively than with the more common extra-national sextortionists.
ONLINE DATING SCAM
Another common online blackmail scam, often linked to sextortion, is the online dating scam. While not inherently a sextortion scam in nascent stages, online dating scams (also called romance scams) still follow similar architecture, with several key differences; the goal of the scammer is not to obtain material but to build rapport with their victims to the point they can convince them that they are in a viable long-distance online relationship. These scams are less forceful and generally lengthier in their involvement. Romance scammers will often claim they work a long distance away from their victim – on an oil rig, as a member of the armed forces, or even as a member of a non-profit international organization.
No matter the claim, the scammers in these situations will ask their victims for money over the course of their exchanges for various reasons: to pay for a fee in their line of work, to send a package overseas to their ‘sweetheart’, or to even “pay for their own visa” to come see their victims. In our professional experience, these situations can sometimes also turn into standard sextortion situations.
EMAIL SEXTORTION
The last and thankfully slowly disappearing form of sextortion we’ll cover today is E-Mail Sextortion. This particular type of situation is becoming less common as ISPs and e-mail providers are beginning to intelligently recognize these messages before they ever hit inboxes, and preventing delivery entirely before arrival. However, some do still manage to get through. These e-mails are formatted in such a way that they lead potential victims to believe their systems have been compromised.
These sextortionists then claim that they have video evidence of the user during ‘private’ moments browsing pornographic websites. Usually, these e-mails come with attachments. The sender demands to open it in order to receive further instruction. Never open those attachments. Many of these sextortion e-mail scams are, in fact, bluffs. However, there are cases where malware on unsecured websites can give them the necessary in to make their threats very real.
Who are Sextortionists, and How Can You Stop Them?
Sometimes, sextortionists can be local – such as in the case of revenge porn. However, in our findings, 95% of all sextortionists are overseas scammers. Typically based out of Nigeria, Morocco, The Ivory Coast, and The Philippines. The motivation behind their sextortion scams is simple: money. They have no vested interest in ruining your reputation, so much as they have an interest in growing richer from your misfortune. Unfortunately, this also means that should one even go to the police to file a report. Even reporting a situation to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (or IC3) may not provide you immediate results. Sextortionists also do not solely target minors. Anyone, of any age, can be a sextortion victim.
HOW TO DEAL WITH ONLINE SEXTORTION?
As online cyber crime evolves, so to do organizations that can handle it. There are now many groups and individuals out there, that are capable to assist in ending online blackmail. We here at Cyber Investigation count ourselves among such organizations. Our experts and analysts have an over-90% success rate when combating sextortionists. Our team is available 24/7 to hear your case. We of course recommend doing your research and checking various sources. If you or someone you know faced with online sextortion, consider giving us a call at 1-888-210-2373. Speak with one of our team members on our online chat client.
We hope we’ve answered the question of ‘what is sextortion?’ Also, if you faced with blackmail or sextortion on the internet – seek professional help. Contact our sextortion helpline 24/7
