Granny tik-toking, being on a zoom call with your boss with no trousers on, technology is making the world a beautiful place, isn’t it?
But the wave of technological evolution sweeping society has not come without its ills. Crime is proportionately morphing, as the fast-expanding internet appears to broaden the spectrum of criminal possibilities scrupulous elements can explore.
An evil fast consolidating in contemporary digital-savvy societies is sextortion. Sounds weird? Actually, it is.
Sextortion is synonymous with online blackmail, but this time, the criminal wants more than your credit card details. They want you to indulge in dehumanizing sexual activity with them.
Ridiculous as it sounds, victims of sextortion are often pressured and threatened to send nude pictures, and in more baffling cases, forced to engage in masturbation in front of a webcam.
Where is it predominant?
So much we have to thank social media for, but it is sadly festering with sextortion perpetrations. These predators diligently gain their victim’s trust, enough for those victims to send them private or sexually delicate materials.
Here, is their bait, and leveraging on such sensitive information, the blackmailer would force the victim to engage in even more sensitive sexual acts, ultimately forming an increasingly difficult dungeon to break from.
Hard as it appears, you can yet break out of that dungeon. If you are a victim of sextortion, I will give you four prison-break hacks to breaking free and recovering your beloved life.
1. Don’t keep it all to yourself
This is what your blackmailer desires best: you not telling anyone about the situation. By locking you in that closed miserable world, such a blackmailer attains overwhelming influence over you because you feel you are alone in the dark.
But in truth, you aren’t. Reach out to someone you trust. Oh, you feel the people you tell will see you as the stupidest person on earth? No, you are not that terribly at fault.
Just anyone can be a victim. You trusted someone – which is completely natural. Just that you were unfortunate to invest such costly trust in the wrong individual.
So long the person you confide in is trustworthy, they wouldn’t disregard the case as trivial. Such an individual will not judge you by any means.
If you can successfully open up about the situation, you have defeated that fear that thrives from feeling abandoned. Indeed, this is a lucrative fear for your blackmailer.
2. Now it’s time to cut off the offender
Yes, the offender has been pulling the strings and running the show, leaving you scampering all about. Now, it is time for you to retrieve control of proceedings.
The first step to that is the cessation of all communication with the blackmailer. If they have been stalking you on Facebook, suspend your account for a while. You don’t necessarily need to delete it entirely. This is considering the need to preserve as much data for latter evidence purposes.
Many victims appear unaware that most of the major social media platforms where such sextortion acts are being perpetrated are girded with online reporting mechanisms to protect victims. The likes of YouTube can set up alarms that flag compromising content posted about you.
3. Never pay the blackmailer
Don’t tell me you are so much in a hurry to lose your hard-earned dollars. Should your blackmailer in the course of their escapades demand money, don’t pay.
Listen, paying such offenders wouldn’t permanently keep them off. What you would get at best is a reprieve before they come roaring again – most times asking for larger amounts.
Some offenders are as mischievous as still publishing the said content even after you have paid. Should the offender pass you their banking information, ensure to store them for investigative purposes.
Details of the offender like their Skype ID, Western Union, MoneyGram Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN), and even Facebook URL should be preserved. Once again, keep all correspondence intact.
4. Now let us get the authorities in
E-bullying – especially in the sexual dimension like sextorting – is one crime police and authorities pay keener attention to these days.
The FBI is particularly interested in dishing consequences to the perpetrators of sextortion. All the packet of evidence you have gathered should be passed on to law enforcement agencies to proceeding with clamping the criminal.
Lastly, it could be beneficial to recourse to legal experts versed in sextortion crimes. In all, remember you don’t need to soak all that hurt inside you. You are not as alone as the blackmailer must have made you feel. GET HELP, darling!