Naked in the wires: how to profit from strawberry lovers on the Web
Cybercriminals extort large sums from fans who like to show off intimate photos of their spouse or other relative in closed "adult chats." Would-be erotomaniacs give seven-figure sums to avoid leaking materials to the "open" Internet. However, this is far from the only way to blackmail users with intimate compromising material. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
But my wife doesn't know
Cases of extortion from users of "adult chats" are becoming more frequent, who invite each other to appreciate the charms of their naked spouses, mothers or sisters.
Scammers gain confidence during correspondence, and after receiving intimate photos, they turn to threats and demand from several tens to hundreds of thousands of rubles for "non-disclosure". One of the capital's telegram news channels reports that a victim from the Moscow region sent a million rubles to cybercriminals, but the photos were still sent to his wife, which allegedly caused the divorce.
— Anonymity in messengers is very conditional, many mistakenly think that by changing their name and privacy settings in the same Telegram, they will remain "faceless", but this is not the case, — a cybersecurity specialist who wished to remain anonymous told Izvestia. — With banned bots, attackers can easily identify the user's ID, and they can even find the phone linked to the account in leaks. After establishing the identity using OSINT methods, it is easy to determine the social circle of a person, his closest relatives and friends — people themselves share this on social networks and on portals. Even if the girl's face is hidden in the photo, she will definitely recognize her body, and she will draw the appropriate conclusions about her life partner.
They parasitize on deviations
The demonstration of intimate images of one's loved ones is a kind of sexual deviation in which a person receives a specific arousal, said psychiatrist and sexologist Alexei Vilkov. Men are most often affected by this perversion.
— The reason for this behavior is often a long-term porn addiction. If a man watches pornographic films for a long time, he develops a dopamine dependence on such plots. Over time, this can lead to a deterioration in the sexual sphere: the attraction to a permanent partner decreases, there is a decrease in overall libido, and even erectile dysfunction develops. Arousal and erection gradually occur only when watching or showing porn materials.
According to the expert, sometimes a man tries to make what he sees come true — for example, he posts intimate photos of his loved ones in anonymous chats. This is a manifestation of the deviation in question.
— Because a man shares the most intimate things — intimate photos of people important to him — he has a strong fear of exposure. His reputation, personal life, and family well-being are at stake here. This can have serious psychological and financial consequences. Therefore, the fear that the truth will come out is very strong, and scammers often use it. But the fear of exposure persists, which over time can lead to serious anxiety and depressive experiences.
Sextortion and its forms
There are other schemes of sex blackmail. Information security experts gave them the common name "sextortion" (from the English sextortion, a portmanteau of the words sex and extortion, blackmail).
Most often, extortion is preceded by a fleeting virtual acquaintance in popular dating services, often instead of a real person, the interlocutor is sent photos and videos of the model or even a deepfake. Scammers seek to transfer communication to Telegram for candid conversations and photo sharing. Soon, the crooks begin to send the victim screenshots of correspondence, an intimate video combined with his photo. And, of course, the amount of the "ransom" is announced, often in cryptocurrency. Otherwise, they promise to defame the person by sending everything to friends and family.
A few years ago, a scheme to extort funds from girls was launched by Ukrainian criminal groups. They initiated contacts with users of the popular Russian social network themselves, invited them on a date, and promised luxurious rendezvous conditions. But one of the conditions was a preliminary assessment of the girl's appearance without clothes. As soon as the compromising material was in the hands of criminals, money was demanded from the victim for the ransom of the photo. But even in the case of payment, the intimate content ended up in the blackmailers' name file. In parallel with replenishing their base on portals located outside Russian jurisdiction, the criminals promoted the resource among Russian users — for money they provided access to the file for anyone who wanted to "check" their girlfriend. Izvestia previously wrote about the situation with this illegal business.
A cloud without pants
Another trend of sex blackmail in recent years is hacking the "clouds". Personal data repositories often contain "sensitive" user content. Hackers made a lot of efforts in 2024, including against Russians — Izvestia had previously written about the situation with exposed cloud services. Today, teenagers are already at risk.
— More and more often, attackers "undress" children in front of cameras using various manipulations, and then promise eternal shame in front of peers and family — criminals use this pressure tool to achieve a variety of goals, — a cybersecurity source told Izvestia. — They can force a child to become their courier or "sign up" for a serious crime. Intimate compromising is the strongest tool of influence, there are cases of teenage suicides due to such content in the wrong hands.
Another trend mentioned by the Izvestia source is fake adult websites. Clone sites are created under the guise of popular adult platforms or webcam services. When registering, the user is asked to "go through verification", in some cases with real documents under the pretext of accrual of payments. As soon as the intimate content and documents are in the hands of crooks, the "model" begins to be blackmailed.
The rules of extortion
Experts identify several features of the algorithm of behavior of extortionists:
- Criminals instruct automated bots to send compromising material to a specific person to his contacts;
- A ransom is required in cryptocurrency in order to simplify the flow of funds as much as possible;
- If a person has paid, they will be asked for a ransom again.;
- Cybercriminals carefully analyze data about a potential victim, and they draw information from merged databases.
"In most cases, these crimes remain latent," Konstantin Parfenyev, an expert in the field of information security, told Izvestia. — The fight against them requires not only improving digital hygiene among users, but also the development of specialized units in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and international cooperation, as many attackers operate from outside the Russian Federation.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
