In recent years, financial sexual extortion, often known as sextortion, has become a more common scam. Most of the time, the scammers pose as young girls or women who are looking for love. They might deceive victims into sharing obscene images or videos and send obscene or artificial intelligence-generated images.
On the other hand, fraudsters occasionally deceive victims by promising cash, gift cards, or other items in return for pictures or videos when they get to know them. The victims are warned that if they don’t pay the scammers, their classmates, friends, and family would receive the pictures or videos.
Never send anyone, irrespective of who they are, any compromising pictures, postings, or videos of yourself. Keep in mind that the internet never forgives or forgets. Once you post something online, it will always be there in some manner.Never accept or ask someone you don’t know on social media for friendship.Turn on security and privacy setup on your instant messaging apps and social media accounts.
Keep your private and intimate photos private. When you are not using your webcams or other electronic gadgets, turn them off. Make use of two-factor authentication, create secure passwords, and use distinct passwords for each social media account. If the other person in an online discussion or engagement is attempting to rush through the conversation and establish intimacy, it should raise suspicions.
Never let anyone use a device to record any intimate behavior or private portion, no matter how close they are. In the future, such data may be misused. Refrain from opening attachments or taking video calls from strangers. Keep the screenshots and the supporting documentation for future reference.
Never open attachments from strangers or take video calls from them. For future reference, keep the screenshots and the supporting documentation. You can report sextortion online or at the cybercrime cell that is nearest to you. Don’t forget that the national cybercrime reporting system allows you to anonymously submit an online complaint against Sextortion and other cyber crime.
Avoid taking intimate, nude, or semi-nude pictures or videos using your phone since this could be embarrassing if they are leaked. Several malicious mobile applications have the ability to access your gallery or storage and exploit it to blackmail you.
