{"id":46037,"date":"2024-05-29T05:03:13","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T05:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/05\/29\/sextortion-guides-sold-on-social-media-bbc-finds\/"},"modified":"2024-05-29T05:03:13","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T05:03:13","slug":"sextortion-guides-sold-on-social-media-bbc-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/sextortion-guides-sold-on-social-media-bbc-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sextortion guides\u2019 sold on social media, BBC finds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Criminals are selling guides on social media on how to carry out sextortion, BBC News has learned.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The guides show people how to pose as young women online, trick a victim into sending sexually explicit material and then blackmail them.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Olamide Shanu appeared in court in London. He is believed to be part of a gang that made \u00a32m from blackmailing adults and children online.<\/p>\n

Last month the National Crime Agency\u00a0issued an alert to schools across the UK, warning against the dangers of sextortion.<\/p>\n

Experts say there has been a sharp rise in children falling victim to sextortion carried out by gangs based in West Africa, mainly Nigeria.<\/p>\n

In the UK, two British teenagers are known to have taken their own lives since October 2022 after becoming victims of sextortion.<\/p>\n

Paul Raffile, an intelligence professional and expert on sextortion, describes the phenomenon as a \u201cmassive threat\u201d to children.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternet scammers over these past two years have found out that they can get very rich very quickly by scamming an untapped market.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s teenagers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Raffile pointed out that adults have been targets for sextortion for years \u2013 and now teenage boys are among the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are finding their victims by going on social media platforms and searching for high schools and youth sports teams, and then \u2018following\u2019 or \u2018friending\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

BBC News has found that guides on how to carry out the crime are openly for sale in videos posted online.<\/p>\n

It is described in detail how to set up untraceable phone numbers, create fake social media profiles and use secure payment methods.<\/p>\n

Some boast about the number of people they have blackmailed \u2013 one wrote that a victim paid him regularly, \u201cevery Friday\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lucy\u2019s 14-year-old son fell victim to a sextortion gang this year.<\/p>\n

Although he had not sent any images himself, the blackmailers mocked up a compromising picture and in a text threatened to share it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a message, basically saying, \u2018don\u2019t shut us down. If you don\u2019t send us money in 24 hours, we\u2019ll send a picture to all your contacts\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was shell-shocked. And he was literally physically shaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teenager had already paid the blackmailers \u00a3100, but with his parents\u2019 help he shut down the account and the phone. He never heard from the blackmailers again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he hadn\u2019t been at home that morning, and I hadn\u2019t been in the kitchen, and if he hadn\u2019t talked to me, I don\u2019t know how it would have played out for him,\u201d said Lucy.<\/p>\n

The US authorities have applied to extradite Mr Shanu, who appeared at Westminster Magistrates\u2019 Court.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old is wanted in the state of Idaho on charges of extortion, money laundering and cyberstalking.<\/p>\n

The charges relate to four victims, one of whom was a child.<\/p>\n

Investigators believe there may be hundreds of victims over a three-year period.<\/p>\n

Mr Raffile says the big Tech Companies are not doing enough to stop sextortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis crime has really exploded on Instagram and Snapchat over these past two years\u2026 these platforms need to aggressively go after these criminals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Snapchat told the BBC: \u201cWe\u2019ve been ramping up our efforts to combat it including a reporting option specifically for threats to leak sexual content, and in-app education for teens.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement Meta, which owns Instagram, said it offered \u201ca dedicated reporting option so people can report anyone threatening to share private images\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe default teens under 18 in the UK into private Instagram accounts at sign-up, which hides their follower and following lists, and into stricter default messaging settings,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

TikTok said the platform was designed \u201cto be inhospitable for those intent on causing harm to teens and we do not tolerate any content or behaviour promoting sextortion\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The post \u2018Sextortion guides\u2019 sold on social media, BBC finds<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Criminals are selling guides on social media on how to carry out sextortion, BBC News has learned. The guides show people how to pose as young women online, trick a victim into sending sexually explicit material and then blackmail them. On Tuesday, Olamide Shanu appeared in court in London. He is believed to be part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}