Since April of this year, the Mannheim police headquarters has increasingly noticed the sending of emails with a new blackmail scam.

The Mannheim police warn of a new blackmail scam.

The origin stories that ultimately lead to the blackmails are very differentiated. However, all blackmails have the same character, which are summarized under the term " sextortion ", a combination of the English words sex and extortion (blackmail).

The stitch

The most common version at the moment is the following: The previously unknown perpetrators send emails and inform the recipients that they have hacked their computers and installed a Trojan.

The senders also claim to have filmed the recipient while visiting websites with pornographic content and associated sexual acts.

They threaten to publish the supposedly made videos and ask the recipients to transfer several hundred euros to a specified Bitcoin address in order to avoid publication.

Such blackmail emails are also received by recipients whose computers do not have a built-in camera.

Scammers do not have such material

So far there is no evidence that the recipients' computers were actually hacked or that the videos mentioned by the perpetrators actually exist.

In Mannheim, Heidelberg and the Rhein-Neckar district, 115 cases have now been reported to the police since the beginning of April 2018. All of these cases are exclusively attempted blackmail. There was no payment of money.

The investigators assume that there is a high number of unreported cases in this area of ​​crime. The actual number of cases of “sextortion” as a form of blackmail can therefore only be guessed at. However, it is likely to be at least in the tens of thousands.

This phenomenon is not only widespread in the local region, but is known throughout Germany. It is currently impossible to estimate whether the perpetrators were successful in these extortion cases, which were unknown to the police.

What to do if you have sextortion?

The phenomenon of “sextortion” affects men and women, with most victims being male. According to what we know so far, the perpetrators are organized as gangs and operate from abroad, particularly from Eastern Europe.

In order to better protect themselves, the police advise all recipients of these or similar blackmail emails:

  • Do not respond to such emails.
  • Do not transfer money to the senders.
  • Report it to the police.
  • Virus protection systems on smartphones, laptops, tablets or computers should always be up to date.

Reports are accepted at any local police station.

Extensive information and tips on crime prevention are also available on the website www.polizei-beratung.de .


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