A manual on how to learn to blackmail and extort money is being sold on social media
2024-05-29 09:05:49
TiranaPost
Dangerous people are selling manuals on social media to teach others how to blackmail and then extort money.
The BBC has dedicated an article to this phenomenon.
The term they claim to teach or train people is called sextortion.
Sextortion occurs when an online scammer first takes nude photos or videos of you and then demands money or blackmails you into publishing the footage.
The guides show people how to pose as young women online, trick a victim into sending them sexually explicit material and then blackmail them.
On Tuesday, Olamide Shanu appeared in court in London. He is believed to be part of a gang that made £2 million from blackmailing adults and children online.
Olamide Shanu
Last month the National Crime Agency issued an alert to schools across the UK, warning of this risk.
Some children have killed themselves when they fell prey to such attacks.
The BBC has discovered that manuals on how to carry out such an online crime are for sale in videos posted online.
It describes in detail how to set up untraceable phone numbers, create fake social media profiles and use secure payment methods.
Some brag about the number of people they have blackmailed - one wrote that one victim paid him regularly, 'every Friday'.
The peak of this type of crime has occurred on Snapchat and Instagram.
Snapchat told the BBC: “We've stepped up our efforts to combat it, including a reporting option specifically for threats to leak sexual content and in-app education for teenagers.
In a statement, Meta, which owns Instagram, said it offers "a dedicated reporting option so people can report anyone who threatens to share private images."
TikTok said the platform was designed 'to be inhospitable to those who intend to cause harm to teenagers and we do not tolerate any content or behavior that promotes fraud'.
However, in the end, care must be individual not to share private images with anyone!
