In the meantime, please feel free to search for ways to make a difference in your community at www. Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. Now Reading:. Membership My Account. Rewards for Good. Share with facebook. Share with twitter. Share with linkedin. Share using email. FRAUD RESOURCE CENTER. Have you seen this scam? Warning Signs The email includes a password you use online or one you used in the past. The threat is poorly worded and includes grammatical errors.

You are given a short deadline to respond, typically a day or two — a classic high-pressure scam tactic. Do keep your operating system, web browser and antivirus programs up to date. Do check that security settings on your social media accounts are activated and set for maximum protection. He or she may just ask for more money. Change it immediately. If you have trouble keeping track of multiple passwords, use a password manager to track and store them.

They could be ploys to infect your computer with malware. Don't store sensitive or potentially embarrassing information online or on mobile devices. More Resources Report online extortion attempts to the IC3 or to an FBI field office in your area.

The website Have I Been Pwned? collects information from major data breaches and lets you check whether email addresses and passwords you use for online accounts may have been compromised. You can learn about how the site handles that data on its privacy page. Also From AARP 'Sextortion' scams spike amid stay-at-home-orders Secret Service warns cybercriminals are exploiting COVID fears 15 ways to protect your personal data 7 ways scammers get your information.

Updated October 5, About the Fraud Watch Network Whether you have been personally affected by scams or fraud or are interested in learning more, the AARP Fraud Watch Network advocates on your behalf and equips you with the knowledge you need to feel more informed and confidently spot and avoid scams.

More From the Fraud Resource Center. Police say a number of men looking for love on the Internet found extortion instead. Halton Regional Police allege a man joined a number of adult dating service websites posing as a woman and prospective date for male subscribers. Police say the interested men were then persuaded to provide personal information about themselves.

Police say the information provided by the unsuspecting victims in emails, chats, texts and voice mail messages then formed the basis for extortion. Police say there were threats to publish the information on social networking sites or send it directly to family, friends, or employers unless monetary demands were met. Kevin Fletcher, 43, of Burlington, Ont.

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This page has been peer-reviewed, fact-checked, and edited by multiple qualified attorneys and legal professionals to ensure substantive accuracy and coverage. Our publication process is robust, following a step content creation and review process. Sextortion is an invasive form of extortion that occurs when a perpetrator threatens to release explicit images of you unless you send them a ransom—usually money, explicit images, or even sexual favors.

At Minc Law, we have proven success preventing the release of embarrassing images and videos, helping clients take control of the situation without drawing unwanted attention to the matter, identifying anonymous sextortionists, and working with local law enforcement to hold perpetrators liable for their actions.

In this article, we provide an in-depth overview of sextortion and what it includes. Then, we will explain how to protect yourself from and respond to internet sextortion. Sextortion is a serious crime that involves a perpetrator threatening to publish private and explicit information or material about you or share it with your friends and family if you do not give in to their demands.

These demands usually involve sexual images, money, or sexual favors. Perpetrators use your fear against you to coerce you into paying them in exchange for not releasing your intimate photos, videos, or media. Sextortion falls under the broader umbrella of extortion. However, some sextortion perpetrators utilize something as minor as a text message displaying your texts and phone number.

This kind of information may be compromising to victims who are in a monogamous relationship. Other extortion schemes, while equally horrifying for the victim, utilize different forms of threats and other embarrassing, non-sexual information. Webcam blackmail sextortion is becoming more and more common. At least 43, reported victims fell prey to an internet crime involving extortion in —and 47 percent of sextortion victims experience daily threats. Once it happens, sextortion is obvious. The perpetrator demands payment and threatens to reveal your intimate images or video if you do not pay them.

Spotting sextortion before it starts, however, requires a little more diligence. With the prevalence of social media, it is no surprise that sextortion scams and schemes are rampant on those platforms. Most of these social media sites enable users to chat via webcam and send photographs. This situation is a breeding ground for sextortionists and harassers looking for a victim. Any site that allows users to meet and communicate is vulnerable to possible sextortion scams, including:.

Or, the perpetrator will convince the victim to join a video chat. They might use pre-recorded videos of an attractive person to trick victims into engaging in sexual acts or compromising positions. Once the call is finished, sextortionists then request a ransom. Minc Law Tip: If a person outside of your contacts has friended you on social media, try conducting a reverse image search of their profile photo. Doing so is an effective way to find other websites, profiles, and platforms that have used the photograph.

Online dating websites are not the main way online extortionists and internet harassers find victims. However, you should still approach them with caution.

People who use online dating platforms might be more vulnerable to exploitation and emotional manipulation due to a past breakup or the desire to find a partner for life. Dating profile sextortion scams take a similar shape to social media sextortion. An attractive and fake dating profile messages a victim then asks for intimate photographs, videos, media, or other information. They threaten to release the images and information to friends and loved ones—unless strict demands are met.

The rise of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, and blockchain over the past several years has resulted in some of the most highly sophisticated and tech-savvy sextortion schemes the internet has ever seen. In one common online sextortion scam, the perpetrator uses a large-scale data breach or hack to find email addresses and passwords. They then enter the information into a script and send it to thousands of potential victims.

The hackers then began a mass email campaign to everyone on the affected list. These phishing emails were from fake Ledger accounts, informing potential victims that their Ledger accounts have been disabled in an attempt to extract more sensitive information. Victims of these kinds of scams are often given a time limit to deliver payment to prevent the mass dissemination of such unsavory information or media.

The payment method? The demand that a victim pay in cryptocurrency should raise a red flag from the beginning. This scam preys upon numbers, hoping that a single person will be gullible enough to believe that their computer has been breached. Simply delete the email, change your password if you feel uncomfortable, and in no circumstances pay the reward at all. If you are curious if your data has been compromised in a past data-breach, we recommend entering your email address at haveibeenpwned.

Sextortion is a crime in the United States. However, there is a lack of comprehensive legislation regulating sextortion at the federal level. There is a wide variance in the laws regarding sextortion across the 50 states, and many state laws fall short in addressing the complexities involved in acts of sextortion.

Most often, sextortionists in the U. are prosecuted under the following criminal statutes:. Section accounts for both the sexual coercion to engage in sexual acts and contact, and distribute sexually explicit and intimate images, a first for sexual extortion legislation in the U. According to California Penal Code Many individuals facing threats of sextortion on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook can become the target of additional false accusations of sexual assault.

Sextortion Fact: Unfortunately, like other malicious internet crimes, the U. does not have comprehensive legislation for sextortion codified in its books. Sextortion crimes are often tried under various criminal statutes. Several popular sextortion cases in the U. have resulted in anywhere from 1. The easiest way to protect yourself from being sexorted is to avoid sending explicit content to anyone else via phone, tablet, or computer.

Keep your wits and a healthy amount of skepticism about you when another person asks you to send intimate photos or videos online. Do not send intimate photos to or video-chat with a person you have not met in real life.

Most sextortion scams follow a familiar pattern. A stranger messages you on social media, a dating app, text, or in an email. Usually, they will ask to move the conversation over to a texting app or platform such as Hangouts, WhatsApp , or Skype. The conversation eventually leads to sexually suggestive themes. You may see the person on the other end of the video chat engaged in sexually suggestive intimate images or video. They will invite you to join in the fun—but these are often fake or pre-recorded images or videos.

They just want you to send them intimate images or videos of yourself. They plan to record you, then threaten to share your images unless you pay them. These payments are usually requested through Western-Union, Bitcoin, PayPal, or other familiar channels. Unfortunately, the answer is simple: you can never know whether you should trust a person you just met online.

A good rule of thumb is to only trust people online if you have met them in real life and have a good reason to believe that they are who they say they are. Even then, you should be mindful of how well you know a person when interacting with them online. The first thing you should do when you realize you may be the victim of sextortion is to remain calm. Do NOT panic, do not pay the ransom, and immediately stop engaging with the person who is trying to extort you.

It might seem counterintuitive to ignore a malicious online perpetrator, stalker, or sextortionist. However, engaging with them further only stands to make matters worse. Paying a ransom can add fuel to the fire, letting the perpetrator know that you will honor all demands. Responding to the sextortionist or doing what they ask can escalate the situation. A request for sexual images can quickly turn into actual sexual favors.

Cutting all contact with the perpetrator helps remove the power dynamic at play. After all, they have engaged with you in the hopes that you will panic and send them what they want. Without open lines of communication, their ability to torment you further becomes minimal. Instead of engaging with the perpetrator, take the following actions as soon as you possibly can:.

Tangible documentation is essential for bringing a successful legal claim of sextortion. To strengthen your case, we recommend asking a trusted family member or friend to help you document evidence. Doing so will help refute any claims by a sextortionist that you have materially altered or tampered with the evidence.

Finally, make sure to screenshot the specific times and dates that the communications and materials took place. Telling a detailed chronological story is important, and small details ultimately help strengthen a case.

Securing all online profiles and accounts is crucial for helping prevent sextortion. To secure your online accounts, set all profiles and accounts to private. Try not to accept friend requests from and subsequently engage with users you do not know.

Beware of profiles that have minimal posts and pictures, and those that are not in your immediate network of friends and family. In the video, Darcy Buxton, our Head Paralegal, will walk you through the likelihood that a sextortionist will act on their threats — and why it is that they usually do not follow through.

Every situation is different, and you may not know what content the sextortioner has in possession, or their willingness to publish it should they not get their way.

If you have already engaged with a sextortionist or online blackmailer, we recommend blocking them on social media. Blocking these perpetrators can help prevent them from gaining further access to a list of your friends and family members. Sometimes, a perpetrator will create multiple accounts to harass victims online. If this happens, you may want to delete your social media profile until legal action is taken. We also recommend deleting or deactivating your profile if you are a target of public shaming on social media.

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