How To Tell If Someone is Real Online – Tips To Avoid Being Set-Up For Sextortion

Communication is key – so many aspects of life rely on it. Being able to communicate effectively and quickly has become a staple of many aspects of modern life. But How To Tell If Someone is Real Online?

Thanks to social media, dating apps, online gaming – even whole Metaverses – we’re more connected than ever as a species. However, with the burgeoning rate of growth the internet has seen, comes drawbacks. As with anything, the larger the sample size, the greater the risk of deviation. For every good, honest person online, there are near as many who abuse the internet’s ability for anonymity.

Cyber-crime is rising in the world; crypto-currency scams, catfishing, system comptonization, and sextortion are things the world is seeing more frequently in incidence.

Today’s topic focuses on one of these types of crimes; sextortion. If you’ve been following our articles, you may already know what sextortion is  .  To give you the quick version, though. Sextortion is a form of blackmail.  Typically taking place online, where a criminal will lure in, gain the trust of, solicit sexual content from, and then ultimately extort a victim for money or favors.

Sextortion doesn’t lurk in any one particular corner of the web either – it’s a scam being perpetrated on nearly all platforms where folks congregate in one way or another.

This ranges from social media platforms to even online games. By the way, if you faced with facebook sextortion feel free to contact us, we can help you

The point of origins of any individual scam aside, there are some signs to look out for to see whether the interactions you’re having with a person online might be leading you down the metaphorical garden path.

How To Tell If Someone is Real Online – The Writing on the Wall

         Regardless of the platform that you’re being contacted through, there are certain similarities that are shared across most sextortion scams, that can help you tell if someone is real online. When looking for tells that the person you’re communicating with is not who they say they are, the single largest tell is the conversation itself.

This will vary slightly across which platform sextortionists are potentially targeting you on.

Here are some red flags to be on the watch for:

• The largest red flag is grammar and sentence structure. Most sextortion scammers are based outside of the United States. In countries where written English literacy is at a lower standard, to generalize. This is not condemning in itself but is certainly a sign.

• When the conversation begins, most sextortionists will start by asking questions of their potential sextortion victim – usually age, what they do, where they live, and similar lines of inquiry. This is fairly normal for any conversation where two people are meeting online for the first time, but to note: typically, these scammers will not answer super-specific questions first, when asked.

The reasoning If you’re communicating on a platform that does not include geographical information about your location (such as Facebook showing where you live or on Snapchat’s SnapMap) we suggest countering any questions of ‘where are you from’ with requesting that information from the opposite party first.

How can I prove my online friend is real?

• Rate of progression of the conversation is also key to keep your mind on.

Sextortion victims fall prey because of one simple factor: they’re sexually or romantically charged. If you sense the conversation turning towards romantic or sexual topics very quickly, stop and check yourself before proceeding any further. NEVER send explicit or intimate images to anyone you don’t know online that you haven’t already met in person.

• The age of someone’s account.

Regardless of the platform – is a telling sign as well. Most sextortionists’ accounts get reported and banned frequently.  They are constantly rotating through new identities to pull off their scams. Check the account’s history and the dates on their photos.

• Additionally, look at photo quality.

While not always a proper tell, there are still many scammers online using low-quality photographs that will often appear to be ‘smudged’ with artifacting.

Keep Things Under Lock and Key

The best and easiest way to avoid online sextortion is, of course, to not engage with strangers on the internet. However, there are steps you can also take to minimize the ability for you to even begin to be targeted as a sextortion victim.

Keep your personal information private and secure.  Do not share your geolocation data on services that can track or map you.

Turn your privacy settings on Facebook and Instagram to as stringently private as you can make them. Setting things so only friends or approved messages can reach out to you is always a good plan. Reduce the amount of information you put out about yourself on normal social media outlets is as well.

On dating applications, especially where ‘hook up culture’ is a bit stronger in general, simply continue to exercise caution and follow our prior tips, and keep conversations on-the-platform rather than moving to another medium.

We hope you now know how to tell if someone is real online. As well as how to avoid online sextortion.

Even the smartest of us sometimes don’t make smart decisions when it comes to romance and intimacy. And worse there are sextortion scammers out there that are evolving and beginning to edge closer to ‘passable’ when examined through the context we’ve provided.

HOW TO REPORT BLACKMAIL OR SEXTORTION

If for any reason you or someone you know is being sextorted, you’re not alone – there are many companies out there today that have experts who can help you mitigate and end situations of online blackmail and help you to not be just another online sextortion victim.

Ours is one such company – with years of experience.  We have an over-90% success rate,  in our ability to assist you. Contact Our Sextortion Helpline. Give us a call or chat with us online 24/7 with one of our team members if you have questions.