Aussies targeted for ‘sextortion’

Young men have become victims of an online crime previously aimed at females, writes Beh Lih Yi

Arising number of young men in Australia are falling victim to online “sextortion”, the head of the country’s internet safety agency has warned, bucking a global trend of primarily targeting vulnerable women and girls.

Seven out of 10 victims of sextortion — a form of extortion that involves sexual acts or images as its currency — in Australia were men, according to the office of Australia’s eSafety commissioner, a government agency.

Many of them were foreign male students who were eager for companionship after they arrived to study at universities, with official figures showing more than half of the victims were aged between 18 and 24.

“It’s absolutely a thing we’re seeing. It’s very concerning,” said eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, who leads the office, which bills itself as the world’s first government agency tasked with keeping citizens safe when online.

Many victims visited social media or dating sites in an attempt to make new friends, but were then coaxed into sharing intimate images of themselves and blackmailed by criminal gangs later.

Victims are often lured into a “sexy Skype or Facetime” call and asked to pose sexually, said Ms Inman Grant.

“When that happens, they are extorted for money. Once they have paid, the scammers will continue going back to them asking for more,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

REVENGE PORN

The warning came as new government figures showed Generation Z Australians — those aged below 25 - have emerged as the fastest-growing group of victims of scams.

Gen Z lost over A$5 million (100 million baht) last year to scams, according to a report by the Australian

Competition and Consumer Commission this week.

The eSafety Commission said organised crime based in countries like the Philippines, is behind many of Australia’s sextortion cases.

Sextortion usually targets women and girls who are then failed by a lack of laws globally to combat such abuses, anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said in a report this month.

Australia is a world leader in fighting sextortion and outlawed “revenge porn” — the non-consensual sharing of intimate images — in 2018. Ms Inman Grant’s office is looking into technological solutions that can help victims scour the web and easily get their images removed.

“This is so that the victims do not have to go out and look for their own images, as it is traumatising,” said Ms Inman Grant.