Burnaby RCMP is sounding the alarm after a spike in so-called “sextortion” incidents in the city.
Since May, local police have investigated 24 of the incidents, which involved perpetrators threatening to release shared intimate videos, images or explicit messages online unless the victim pays them off, usually via Bitcoin or a money transfer.
“It is essentially blackmail,” states a Burnaby RCMP press release.
Police are asking the public to be extra vigilant when communicating with strangers online.
Different scenarios
According to Burnaby RCMP, sextortion incidents can be broken down into two different scenarios:
In the first scenario, the victim receives an unsolicited friend request via social media. The suspect will then engage the victim in online chat and ask to take the conversation to a video sharing platform.
The suspect will then ask the victim to engage in some form of sexual activity including nudity and/or masturbation. The suspect will then end the session and tell the victim they have a video recording of their conversation. The suspect will then threaten to release the video to the victim’s friends via social media unless the victim makes a payment.
In the second scenario, the victim receives an unsolicited email from someone claiming to have a pornographic video of the victim.
The suspect says in the email that the video will be sent to all of the victim’s email contacts unless they make a payment.
The suspect may also email the victim stating they will expose the victim’s use of porn sites, according to police.
Again, the suspect will then ask for payment via Bitcoin or money transfer.
In some instances, the suspect may have old email or website passwords the victim has used in the past.
Handling a sextortion attempt
To counter sextortion, police are advising web users to be careful of who they engage with online and to be mindful their actions may be recorded.
If faced with a sextortion scenario, police recommend not complying with any threat, stopping all forms of communication with the suspect, keeping the correspondence you have had with the individual and reporting the incident to the police immediately.
More information about sextortion scams can be found at www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca.
