Don't Press Send: Avoiding Sextortion

A recent story making the rounds was of 15-year-old Bryce Tate who tragically took his life 2 hours and 32 minutes after his first IG interaction with presumably a Nigerian Yahoo Boy under the guise of being a 17-year-old girl.

Within minutes the "girl" forged a trusting relationship with Bryce, before sending him intimate pictures of "herself".

When she requested pictures in return he immediately complied, only to then be told,

"I have your nudes and everything needed to ruin your life. Pay me $500 right now."

Bryce responded by terminating his life.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first instance of it's kind, where an unsuspecting young person finds themselves in the crosshairs of a sexual predator who demands more explicit content or a scammer who demands money in exchange for silence. 

Erin West of Operation Shamrock makes a very good point when she says

"You have the advantage of AI. You can say the picture isn't you."

She's right, however, even if the picture isn't actually you, that doesn't take away how absolutely humiliating it would be to have sexually explicit deep fake images of yourself being disseminated over the internet.

After all, if it falls into the hands of an employer, how do you convince him or her that it's not you, without literally having to bear all.

In my work as an anti sex trafficking advocate and international speaker, I have children from across the world reach out to me & disclose sending a nude photograph and telling me they want to get it back.

The thing is, just like the majority of financial scams, the chance of recovery are slim to none.

Sextortion isn't merely limited to "small" players like the Yahoo Boys doing the rounds on social media.

Unbeknownst to many, it’s also big business in scam compounds.

One Filipino scammer explains how she & her team would spend hours engaging in online dating interactions, receiving sexually explicit messages and of course the "obligatory" male genitalia pics. 

Once the man at the other end of the phone was "hot and bothered", the conversation would literally be moved to the next level.

At this stage the scammer would have a video call with the victim where both would engage in masturbation, however, unbeknownst to the scammer he was being recorded.

This recording is all that was needed for the next level of the operation: the blackmail stage.

When considering that almost identical approaches of "attack" are being used against both child and adult victims, the simple answer isn't to say "don't send pictures," because, in this day and age, that advice just isn't going to work. 

Instead, a better suggestion is don't take photos with your face or any other personal identifiers of you in it. 

However, even in saying this, that doesn't stop the scammer from taking your face and putting it on someone else's body, or putting your face back on your own naked body.

Therefore, the only way around that is to ensure that there are no photos of your face online, whether that's your LinkedIn profile, social media platform or any media or news outlet.

The empathy shown towards victims of Sextortion is often nonexistent, rather, victim shaming and blaming is the usual response.

No matter our opinion on the taking and consensual sharing of nude pictures with what is believed to be one other person, their non-consensual public dissemination is a crime and should be considered as such. 

How many more suicides such as Bryce do we need to read about before we actually start caring?

In the UK there's the campaign:

Stop, Think, Fraud.

3 simple words that I believe should be our approach to everything.

STOP:

When you're asked for a nude picture by your online boyfriend or girlfriend that you've never met in person.

THINK:

About the consequences of these pictures getting into the wrong hands, being viewed by family friends or colleagues.

FRAUD:

1. Can you really be certain the person you're speaking to is exactly who they say they are?

   
   

2. Are you really convinced that phone and/or video call is a real authentic person and wasn't deep faked?

   
   

3. Is there even the slightest possibility that you're a victim of a scam and those pictures could open you up to Sextortion?

   
   

If you experience even the slightest hint of doubt, don't take and definitely don't send those photos.