Besides cyber crime and online predators, you can add another thing to the list of online dangers now; extortion and blackmail. Although both have been around for centuries, with today’s modern technologies blackmailers now have a more proficient means of spying on their victims without the risk of being caught. All they need is a computer and access to the internet.

Nowadays, a blackmailer’s evil plan might start by hacking into a victims computer and looking for nude images or messages to use against them. In the most extreme circumstances the hacker can even take control of a computers webcam and microphone and spy on a individual without them even knowing. Every click, every keystroke can be monitored by a hacker who is motivated enough. In the case of a teenager, a parent, cash can be extorted to prevent additional private photos or videos from being exposed.

In certain cases, even the most harmless online friend request can begin the process of a plan to blackmail someone. Such a request or any flattering message may lead to flirtation, which then results in the victim’s sending lewd pictures to the online “friend.” Once those pictures have been turned over, the “friend” has leverage to get more compromising photos, and/or to request money to keep the photos secret.
Such scheme are common enough that they now have a name: Getting sensitive personal and sexual information from an Internet user and using it against that person is referred to as “sextortion.”

The FBI’s Recent Alert, Following on the Heels of a Major Sextortion Scheme

Recently, the FBI set off an alert for internet users warning internet users to be aware of the new threat posed by sextortion. What initially set off this alert was a significant arrest by the Los Angeles FBI this previous summer. A 31 year old man was apprehended on charges of participating in a scheme to sexually extort more than 200 victims, the majority of whom were young teenage girls and also hacked into one hundred computers.

The charged man was said to have hacked into his victims computers, installed malicious code, downloaded sexually lewd photos and used those images to extort more photos and videos from his victims.

In a FBI report, they state that the extortionist used a popular social networking website and acted as a friend, relative or other trusted contact in order to spread a virus that enabled him access to all of his victims computers. In several instances, he posed online as a person’s friend or sister, and sent the victim messages with attachments asking if she wanted to watch a video. If victims opened the attachment, the virus self-installed itself discreetly. Unbeknownst to the victim, the hacker then had control over her computer; including all files, folders, images and devices.

The FBI states that, by threatening to distribute private and lewd information with their parents and email contacts, the man pressured the young women into providing him with more pictures and videos. According to an FBI news report, in one example, the hacker attached a pornographic picture of his victim to an e-mail, and told her that unless she sent him a sexually-explicit video of herself, he would notify her parents about all the photos he had found on her PC.

If you are a parent who is concerned about the online welfare of your child, then please download effective K9 Web Protection software.

For more information on sextortion and online blackmail, please visit K9 Web Protection

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