Financial extortion / sextortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining something, typically money, through force, threats, or coercion. When this involves sexts this can be called Sextortion.
The National Crime Agency say that globally, there has been an increase in reporting of young people and adults being forced into paying money or meeting another financial demand (such as purchasing a pre-paid gift card) after an offender has threatened to release sexual/indecent images of them. This is called ‘Financially Motivated Sexual Extortion’, a type of online blackmail often referred to as ‘sextortion’.
Victims of any age are potential targets, however teenage males aged 14-17 and male adults aged 18-30 are particularly at risk.
This crime is usually carried out by organised criminal gangs, often based overseas, who are typically motivated by financial gain.
Also includes:
Warnings such as a child oversharing online
Warnings such as facing financial pressures which can make a child vulnerable to exploitation.
It includes detecting age inappropriate payment methods and gift cards
Extortion and Sextortion coercive messages
-
We tend to hope that “this wouldn’t happen to me” However, BBC News sent a Freedom of Information Act request to every police force in the UK, asking how many reported blackmail offences featured the word "sextortion” over the last decade.
The 33 forces (out of a total 45) who responded recorded almost 8,000 blackmail cases logged with a reference to sextortion last year. The same number of forces recorded 23 in 2014. All the forces to respond were in England and Wales.
Across the last decade, there were at least 21,323 recorded offences that included a reference to the word sextortion. Over 18,000 of these were since the pandemic.
In the same timeframe, blackmail offences as a whole have seen an 18-fold rise, according to Home Office data.
Most of the victims are male.
-
To detect this danger category we use all 5 detection methods in the danger list:
Natural Language Processing
Artificial Intelligence
Key words, sites and apps
Sequences and patterns
Machine learning for anomalies e.g. a new contact from outside of your contact lists
-
If you have been affected by this issue a great website is:
Sextortion - National Crime AgencyIf you are in immediate danger 999
If you are under 18, speak to a trusted adult about what has happened to you. They will help you to report the incident to your local police force by calling 101 or 999 if you feel you are at immediate risk of harm. Or if you do not have a trusted adult, you can report to NCA’s CEOP Safety Centre www.ceop.police.uk/Safety-Centre.
Relevent Blogs
How to Keep my Child Safe Online
Discover essential strategies for keeping your child safe online in our comprehensive blog, "How to Keep My Child Safe Online." Learn about fostering open communication, setting device limits, and utilizing tools like Big Sister for effective monitoring.
Everything you Need: Online Safety
Online safety is evolving and it’s important to be aware of the tools and support systems out there available to both parents and children. Here’s everything you need to know about online safety.
In The Room: Protection of Children Bill
Big Sister attends a committee hearing for the Protection of Children Bill (Digital Safety and Data Protection). The bill aims to enhance online safety for children by increasing accountability for tech companies.