Blackmail is a crime, that much should go without saying. But what exactly makes a situation blackmail, and how does it manifest in the digital age?
At its core, blackmail is a form of extortion. As an act of extortion, blackmail is about coercing someone to take an action, usually by threatening to reveal sensitive, embarrassing, or damaging information. In the digital world, blackmail often takes the form of a threat to expose private or confidential information. This information could be private messages, intimate photos, or compromising videos on different channels unless the victim complies with the demands. Most countries classify blackmail as coercion for financial gain. Coercion for favors or additional sexual content often fall into the categorization of exploitation rather than extortion.
Online Blackmail Relies on Three Key Elements:
Most cybercriminals will rely on these three elements to ensure their continued success in extorting victims.
- Exploitation of Trust: Perpetrators often gain access to private information or content through hacking, social engineering, or fraud. They then use that information as leverage to extort.
- Fear and Intimidation: Threats to expose the sensitive content or harm reputations are used to manipulate the victims into complying with the blackmailers demands.
- Anonymity and Reach: A digital world enables blackmailers to operate anonymously, and without restrictions making it difficult for victims to identify of confront their blackmailers without the help of cyber security professionals.
As digital communication continues to grow, so too does the risk of encountering blackmail in its various forms, underscoring the importance of safeguarding your personal information and understand the tools and resources available when threatened.
Types of Online Blackmail
Many online platforms are prone to sextortion. Including social media, message boards, and even on some of the largest online games.
#1 Sextortion:
Sextortion, a portmanteau of ‘sex’ and ‘extortion’, refers to the act of a blackmailer (often referred to as a sextortionist, colloquially, when speaking about this type of blackmail) luring in an unsuspecting victim with promises of romance or sexual intimacy. Leveraging a fraudulent profile (referred to as catfishing) the criminal will send explicit message or content to the potential victim, with their end-goal being to receive compromising intimate images or media from the victim revealing their identity.
Once content is received from the victim, the blackmailer will threaten exposure of this content to the victim’s family, friends, or business colleagues in a targeted leak if not paid to keep the content private.
Many online platforms are proven hunting grounds for this type of cybercrime, including social media, message boards, and even some of the largest online gaming communities.
Sextortion comes in many varieties and originates from many different countries. While it can happen anywhere, there are trends that show a higher majority of sextortion crimes originating from the exploitation of US, UK, and AU citizens by cyber criminals in the Philippines, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Easter European communities.
Sextortion threats are normally delivered through email sextortion, social media sextortion, or through direct messaging applications such as WhatsApp or Telegram.
#2 Sensitive Information Blackmail
Sensitive information blackmail is often referred to as ‘Personal Data Breaches’ where information that is not sexual content is used to extort the victim. This type of online blackmail accounted for over 100,000 cases of extortion reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigations Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) between 2022-2023(1).
The goal sensitive data blackmail is the same as sextortion in that the blackmailer will threaten exposure of the confidential or proprietary information if not compensated for keeping the information out of the public domain.
If the target of this blackmail is a business or organization rather than an individual, the term used to identify the blackmail is changed to Proprietary Information Release or ‘Threat of Action’.
Unlike with sextortion, sensitive information blackmail does not deploy catfishing or fraud tactics but targeted digital attacks such as phishing to gain access to the content.
#3 Police Impersonation Blackmail
This form of blackmail leverages fraud in a unique way. Rather than threatening to expose the victim’s sensitive information to the public as in sextortion and sensitive information blackmail, the blackmailer impersonates a law enforcement officer and threatens immediate incarceration if not compensated.
The threats in these impersonation scams are often delivered using fake profiles, emails, or credentials that if examined more closely can reveal their fraudulent nature.
It is important to know that organizations like the FBI, NCA, or ASIO or any national intelligence agency will not extort anyone for compensation in lieu of arrest.
How to Deal with Online Blackmail?
Depending on the nature of your situation and the threat you are facing, the first step you’ll want to take it to report the situation to real law enforcement. Many countries have specific divisions of their national law enforcement agencies who handle cases of online extortion, blackmail, and other cyber crimes. In the United States, IC3 is available for adults and NCMEC(2) for minors. In the UK the NCA specifically deploys their Cyber Crime Unit(3). We strongly encourage that if you are experiencing any case of cyberblackmail outlined above you report first to these organizations prior to working with any other professional organizations. Private cyber security firms that specialize in a process known as digital forensics are a great second stop if you are worried about jurisdictional delays leading to additional threats or actual exposure of your content.
Work With Digital Forensics Corp.
Here at Digital Forensics Corp, we have strive to combat cases of online extortion and blackmail by removing one of the key elements blackmailers rely on, their anonymity.
By leveraging different techniques for geo location, device finger printing, and forensic accounting we leverage this data to break through cyber anonymity and reveal the identities of cyber blackmailers. Using this information, we are able to intercede on behalf of our clients to get to their true goal, preventing the release of their content and getting the threating messages to stop.
If you or someone you love is currently being threatened, we encourage you to speak with one of our experts available 24/7 through our Blackmail Helpline. These calls are confidential and complimentary and the information you gain can help you make an informed decisions on how to proceed. We also cover additional topics in the field of online blackmail Here.
Resources:
- https://www.ic3.gov/annualreport/reports/2023_ic3report.pdf
- https://www.missingkids.org/theissues/sextortion
- https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/cybercrime
DISCLAIMER: THIS POST IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSIDERED LEGAL ADVICE ON ANY SUBJECT MATTER. DIGITAL FORENSICS CORP. IS NOT A LAWFIRM AND DOES NOT PROVIDE LEGAL ADVICE OR SERVICES. By viewing posts, the reader understands there is no attorney-client relationship, the post should not be used as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed professional attorney, and readers are urged to consult their own legal counsel on any specific legal questions concerning a specific situation.
