Sextortion is on the rise throughout UK

All areas: Act mainly committed by organised crime groups

Sextortion – the act of blackmailing someone by threatening to share sensitive images of them – is on the rise throughout the UK, including in the Thames Valley. At particular risk are young males, some as young as 11. Adrian Williams spoke to Detective Superintendent Stuart Bosley of Thames Valley Police about the crime and how to defend against it.

‘Sextortion’ (sexual extortion) – the act of blackmailing someone by threatening to share private and explicit images of them – is on the rise in the UK with more and more cases cropping up in the area.

The crime covers a range of activities, though all involve a demand for money alongside the threat of sharing embarrassing photos or videos of the victim with their contacts.

Extortionists demand hundreds, sometimes thousands of pounds from their victims.

Typically, they ‘lurk in online forums and trawl for victims’, which they ‘can easily find’.

The highest proportion of victims are men aged between 21 and 30, but a substantial proportion of victims are in the 11-20 age group.

About 30 cases of sextortion have been identified since the beginning of the year via Thames Valley Police’s neighbourhood alerts for Maidenhead.

In some cases, there have been a handful of sextortion crimes a week in the area.

Exact numbers of cases for sextortion are difficult to quantify, as it is not its own separate crime – rather, it falls under the heading of blackmail.

Thames Valley Police is unable to break down the data into sextortion cases versus other types of blackmail but says that incidences of blackmail in general have been on the rise.

Home Office figures show police forces across England and

Wales recorded 22,064 blackmail offences in the year to March – more than double the number in 2019-20.

Thames Valley Police recorded 765 cases in 2020-2021, compared to 1,021 cases in the last 12 months. In the Royal Borough, the number has risen from 43 to 66 in the past year.

This represents a rise of about a third (33 per cent).

In addition, there are many scammers that send out a mass of bogus threats to multitudes of people, claiming to have explicit material they do not actually possess.

In the case of true sextortion, the blackmailer will prove that they have compromising material when making threats.

Some means of sextortion include:

■ Posing as an attractive person on social media who is sexually interested in the victim; or posing as someone on a dating site looking for love

■ Sending explicit photos, then asking for some back in exchange

■ Sending Facebook friend requests to gain access to the victim’s contacts; or claiming to be a friend-of-a-friend, fellow school pupil or other acquaintance

■ Making a video call to someone and recording it without their knowledge. In one instance, someone picked up the phone while in the bathroom and was briefly filmed

■ Making a video call that appears to be a conversation but is actually a ‘sophisticated’ series of pre-recorded responses, designed to evoke a sense of personal connection

■ Hackers gaining access to explicit photos stored on phones, taken with the phone’s camera; and gaining access to the victim’s contact list.

Those using the Snapchat app should also be cautious. Even though it automatically deletes messages after they have been viewed, it is still possible to save images.

Detective Superintendent Stuart Bosley of Thames

Valley Police said: “Once you’ve taken a photo, you have to work under the [assumption] that it’s there forever,” said Det Supt Bosley.

One way that sextortionists gain access to the victim’s contacts is often via Facebook.

Police advise reviewing your privacy settings to hide your friends, and never accepting a friend request from someone you don’t know in real life.

Facebookers will also need to be aware of clone accounts, which look like people you know but are actually fake accounts run by nefarious people.

To be safe, carefully check the profile for anything that seems out of place (lack of friends or mutual friends, very few photos, very few personal posts, out of character posts).

You can also double check with the friend that the request came from them by sending them a message via a different platform.

Though one common proposed solution to guard against sextortion is to leave faces out of explicit pictures, Det Supt Bosley believes this is unlikely to help very much.

“Whether your face is on show or not, they can still tell your contacts it’s you. You could see it going around a school, it would still cause a lot of embarrassment,” he said.

Sharing explicit photos of people under the age of 18 is a separate crime and is taken ‘very seriously’, including when the person sharing the image is another young person.

The police advises not sharing any explicit images with anyone you do not know in real life; however, even if you do know them, this is not without risk.

“Relationships change,” said Det Supt Bosley. “There’s also revenge porn, which is like sextortion but the aim is embarrassing the person rather than getting money.”

Sextortion is mainly committed by organised crime groups living overseas, which makes it ‘difficult to prosecute’.

However, it is a very preventable crime, says Det Supt Bosley; the easiest way is not to take any photos on your phone or computer you would be embarrassed to have shared with others.

But if you are caught up in a sextortion, he says, firstly, ‘don’t panic’ and ‘don’t pay’.

“If you pay, quite often they will say, ‘Thanks very much, we want more money.’ They won’t go away,” said Det Supt Bosley.

“Once they see you as likely to pay, you’re open to more attacks. It’s a low-risk way for them to make money.”

Victims have reported paying up and being contacted with yet more threats and demands for money months afterwards.

Police recommend ceasing communication once threats are sent. Engaging indicates that you could be eventually persuaded to pay.

“Report it online or via 101 – we will deal with it in confidence and we will take it seriously,” said Det Supt Bosley. “We won’t judge you.”

To help the police with its investigations, do not delete messages – take screenshots of them and deactivate (but do not delete) your Facebook account. Deactivating it makes it inaccessible to the criminal but preserves the evidence for the police.

There are also further support channels to visit, such as Report/Remove on Childline for young people, or Child Exploitation Online Protection (CEOP); and StopNCII for adults.

“Even if the image is removed, [sextortion] has a massive emotional impact,” said Det Supt Bosley.

“A lot of people are embarrassed both to report the crime and seek support, especially young people, which is concerning.

“Younger people may panic and become overwhelmed by what’s happened to them.

They may not want to talk to parents or friends.

“Remember you are not alone – and you are a victim of organised crime.”