THE DIGITAL TRAP
A SIMPLE PHOTOGRAPH COULD TURN INTO A NEVERENDING CYCLE OF BLACKMAIL FOR MONEY, SEX AND WORSE— HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF
INDIA, OVER THE PAST DECADE, has seen an increase in the cases of cybercrime and ‘sextortion’— essentially, blackmail for sexual gain. Cases of sextortion usually involve a blackmailer with access to a person’s private videos or photographs. This can happen in a number of ways—a hacker might break into someone’s phone or computer and gain access to private material. Other situations might involve an ex-partner who (with or without consent) could have photographed or filmed their significant other in compromising situations, or even a former partner who had been sent nude photographs/ similar material during the course of a relationship.
However the material may have been acquired—whether through theft or in the course of a normal relationship—it is then used as leverage for ‘sextortion’. Typically, victims are
blackmailed for money, sexual favours, or more compromising material, with the threat being that the blackmailer would otherwise publish the material they have on the internet. One of my clients, for example, suffered immensely when her exboyfriend—a socially powerful individual—threatened to leak videos of her (filmed during the course of the relationship) if she didn’t give him money, send him more explicit photos and videos, and have sex with him. Despite her resistance, she was exploited in all three areas.
Revenge pornography is also very common when one partner retains explicit material from a relationship. Here, victims are often forced to remain in relationships, with the threat of those explicit photos/ videos being leaked online. Quite often, morphed photographs—in which people’s faces are edited into explicit material—are also used to blackmail people. Cyber-stalking also often takes place alongside revenge pornography and sextortion.
Social networking sites and dating portals massively increase the risk of such crimes. Smartphone applications also contribute to the risk, because people using video-calling applications do not realise that they can be recorded. There are phone apps that record WhatsApp audio as well as video calls, applications (such as games, photo-editing apps, social media apps) that have access to all the content in one’s phone gallery and mechanisms through which one can easily recover data from formatted phones. The lack of awareness of such phone applications and tech-based capabilities is one of the top reasons that individuals become victims.
One of my clients was a couple who
SEXTORTION SCAMS ARE OFTEN EMPTY THREATS— BLACKMAILERS COULD BE LYING ABOUT HAVING COMPROMISING MATERIAL
had formatted their phone and bought a new one under a phone exchange policy. What happened next was absolutely unexpected. The couple found themselves being sextorted—criminals had managed to recover all their contacts, photos and videos from the exchanged phone, which happened to include some explicit content. As a matter of fact, consented documentation of intimate moments on phones and other devices is one of the primary causes of such crimes. More often than not, people don’t realise that, once recorded, content doesn’t just stay on the device. It often finds its way to the web, being backed up through smartphone apps, synced with online accounts, or through similar methods.
Sextortion scams, another worrying threat, are also very common these days. In such cases, victims generally receive an email from blackmailers in which they are told that their accounts/ devices have been hacked, and that the blackmailer has gained access to their explicit material or to videos of them watching pornography on the internet. To ‘prove’ that they have this material, blackmailers often include a real password used by the victim for their email/ social media accounts, etc. The email contains a threat—that this material will be published on the internet—and a demand for payment, usually in Bitcoin, which is very difficult to trace.
I have dealt with over 20 such cases in which victims were either so frightened that they went into depression or became suicidal after having to pay huge amounts of money. In many other cases, victims choose to simply ignore such emails. The truth is that such blackmail attempts are usually empty threats—blackmailers are usually lying about having hacked into the victim’s device. Nevertheless, these scams often work because the emails include a real password used by the victims. This is especially frightening for those who aren’t familiar with the internet’s dark underbelly—a sad fact of the digital age is that email addresses and passwords can often be purchased in bulk on the dark web, gathered by hackers from data breaches of email or social media platforms.
Another common source of such material is spy cameras placed in rented houses by landlords. In other cases, couples are forcefully recorded in compromising situations—such cases are especially common in rural areas. The circulating of obscene content on social media and fake social media accounts, or the fraudulent filming of individuals on video calls—there is no doubt that the digitisation of the 21st century has become almost a lethal weapon. With all these and more making the rounds of late, it is of utmost importance for individuals to take precautions for their own well-being.
The most basic suggestion would be to constantly be aware of your surroundings—whether you have moved into a new house, or are in a trial room at a store. Another important point to remember is to never record intimate moments on smartphones or other digital devices. These two steps, if followed conscientiously, are sufficient to avoid trouble in most cases. Further, in cases of cyber bullying or sextortion, do not delete the evidence. Breaking your phone or de-activating a social media account won’t erase the data—the material being used is not on your device, it is on the web. Involving a family member who will understand your position and support you is the next step before approaching the police. Most criminals run away when they’re told that the victim is going to seek legal measures—in many cases, they depend on the victim being too frightened to go public. Further, the police often have resources to trace such criminals and put an end to this sort of blackmail. (Investigators, however, must also remember to deal with victims with the utmost sensitivity instead of moral policing.) Lastly, being on the receiving end of sextortion and cyber-bullying can damage one’s mental and emotional health. Counselling is advised to completely break free from such disturbing events and come out stronger.
BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS— WHETHER YOU HAVE MOVED INTO A NEW HOUSE, OR ARE IN A TRIAL ROOM AT A STORE