The woman filed a complaint with PI Mindelheim. Contacting us via email results in traces of data and thus leads to investigations. Even if these are not immediately sufficient to identify the perpetrators, they at least provide information about the context of the crime. In cases of sex pressure, the police advise never to accept the request and to file a report immediately, regardless of whether recordings were actually made. To do this, emails or hand messages should be backed up immediately. The fulfillment of demands usually entails further demands.
“Sexpressing” or “sextortion”
The term “sextortion” is made up of the English words sex and extortion – blackmail. Sextortion is about sexual blackmail. What starts as a harmless flirt ends with high demands for money. The scammers make their victims undress in front of the webcam and perform sexual acts on themselves. They then blackmail their gullible chat partners. There are also a number of such cases pending in the area of the Upper Bavaria South Police Headquarters.
The process
In most cases, victims are contacted via social media. Attractive female profiles often make a harmless friend request, which the injured party accepts, even though there is no previous relationship. Initial chats quickly become sexualized and, at the suggestion of the new acquaintance, further communication is arranged via one of the numerous existing video platforms.
The later victims then engage in excited sexual acts in front of the camera when asked.
If the images are then “meaningful,” there is a sudden threat to send said incriminating images to friend lists or family members if the injured party does not agree to pay a large sum in euros to a foreign account number. Demands for Bitcoin payments or the release of activation numbers for prepaid cards are also not uncommon. Out of shame and fear of publication, those affected often resort to blackmail. Not least because they are given information that the lady in the chat is still underage. According to the criminal police's investigations, the money flows can mostly be traced back to Ivory Coast. The money is irrevocably lost and the sex-pressing scam is successful.
Sexpressing/sextortion cases are increasing
In the area of responsibility of the Rosenheim criminal police, an injured party was defrauded of 8,000 euros using the perfidious scam. In Miesbach, a man paid his blackmailers 3,000 euros. Such extortions were also successful in the Weilheim, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mühldorf areas. While 20 such cases were recorded in the police headquarters area in 2020, the number rose to more than 30 cases in the following year 2021 and a further increase in the number of cases is also expected for the current year 2022.
Police tips
The criminal police give tips on how to protect yourself from sexpressing or sextortion:
- Do not accept friend requests from strangers.
- Check your account and privacy settings regularly.
- Be cautious about publishing personal information such as address, date of birth or employer.
- Don't agree to a video chat too quickly.
- If in doubt, first tape off the chat camera so that you can only communicate verbally and observe what is happening.
- Do not consent to exposure or intimate acts in video chats if you have only known the person for a short time.
- Always keep the operating and virus protection systems on your online devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets or computers up to date to protect yourself from malicious software, so-called malware. There is malware that can easily activate your webcam and use it to film you at any time!
If you are already being blackmailed:
- Do not transfer any money! The blackmail usually doesn't stop after the payment.
- Report it to the police.
- Contact the site operator and request that the images be deleted. Inappropriate content can be reported to the site operator using buttons specially set up for this purpose.
- Stop contact with the anonymous person immediately and do not respond to messages.
- Save chat histories and messages using screenshots.
You can find extensive information about the phenomenon of sextortion or sexpressing, tips on behavior and a video clip on the website of ProPK, the state and federal police crime prevention agency: HERE
You might also be interested in: Email with subject “Action required for your PayPal account” is phishing!
Source: Bavaria Police
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