Sextortion

A mockup example of a sextortion text message. After gaining naked photographs or videos of the victim, the scammer then threatens the publication of these pictures or to send them to close friends and family members. A demand of money is then made, though usually the scam is either a bluff (e.g. the scammer never intended to publish them) or the pictures/videos are published regardless even if the money is sent.[1]

Sextortion (a portmanteau of sex and extortion) employs non-physical forms of coercion to extort sexual favors from the victim. Sextortion refers to the broad category of sexual exploitation in which abuse of power is the means of coercion, as well as to the category of sexual exploitation in which threatened release of sexual images or information is the means of coercion.[2]

As used to describe an abuse of power, sextortion is a form of corruption[3] in which people entrusted with power – such as government officials, judges, educators, law enforcement personnel, and employers – seek to extort sexual favors in exchange for something within their authority to grant or withhold.[4][5][6][7][8] Examples of such abuses of power include: government officials who request sexual favors to obtain licenses or permits,[9][10] teachers who trade good grades for sex with students,[11][12] and employers who make providing sexual favors a condition of obtaining a job or getting promoted.[citation needed]. A Transparency International report on sextortion noted some challenges in prosecuting sextortion under existing anti-corruption and gender-based violence legal frameworks.[13]

Sextortion also refers to a form of blackmail in which sexual information or images are used to extort money or sexual favors from the victim.[14][15] Social media and text messages are often the source of the sexual material and the threatened means of sharing it with others. An example of this type of sextortion is where people are extorted with a nude image of themselves they shared on the Internet through sexting. They are later coerced into giving money, or performing sexual acts with the person doing the extorting or are coerced into posing or performing sexually on camera, thus producing hardcore pornography.[16][15] This method of blackmail is also frequently used to out LGBT people who keep their true sexual orientation private.[17]

A video highlighting the dangers of sextortion has been released by the National Crime Agency[18] in the UK to educate people, especially given the fact that blackmail of a sexual nature may cause humiliation to a sufficient extent to cause the victim to take their own life,[19] in addition to other efforts to educate the public on the risks of sextortion.[20]

  1. ^ Nir, Sarah Maslin (15 May 2024). "What to do if You Are Threatened with Sextortion". The New York Times.
  2. ^ De la Cerna, Madrilena (April 15, 2012). "Sextortion". Cebu Daily News. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
  3. ^ "How to curb sextortion, violence against women – Amaechi". Punch. Nigeria. July 2, 2012. Archived from the original on August 6, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-05. 'Sextortion is the currency of corruption and eats the fabric of society and it is in all sectors of the society,' [Justice Binta Nyako] said.
  4. ^ "CSW Wraps up Second Week of Work". School Sisters of Notre Dame. March 9, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
  5. ^ "11th Biennial World Conference of the IAWJ, London 2012, Keeping Safe – Keeping Well" (PDF). Provincial Judges' Journal. 35 (1). The Canadian Association of Provincial Court Judges: 58. Summer 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-05. Sextortion is a form of sexual exploitation and corruption that occurs when people in positions of authority – whether government officials, judges, educators, law enforcement personnel, or employers – seek to extort sexual favours in exchange for something within their power to grant or withhold.[permanent dead link‍]
  6. ^ Mayol, Ador Vincent; Matus, Carmel Loise (March 4, 2011). "Lady judges: 'End sextortion'". Cebu Daily News. Archived from the original on May 12, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-05. When a boss asks an employee to have sex with him in exchange for a job promotion, that's 'sextortion,' a female magistrate said yesterday. So is a teacher seeking sexual favors from a student seeking better grades.
  7. ^ Soyingbe, Anthonia (July 4, 2012). "Sextortion: Checkmating this new alias for bribe in Nigeria". Daily Independent. Nigeria. Archived from the original on December 24, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-05. Sextortion ... is basically about an element of abuse of power by somebody entrusted with authority and somebody who is seeking either an advantage or justice from that person who holds the clout. And sadly, it is in all spheres of life – the judiciary, executive, legislator, media, police, army and indeed, every sector of the Nigerian life.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. ^ Jundu, Hon. Fakihi A.R. (December 2, 2010). "ILO – Speech by Hon. Fakihi A. R. Jundu, Principal Judge". Judiciary.go.tz. Retrieved 2012-10-05. Another global plight ... is the one dubbed 'Sextortion' … [t]hese harassers insist on sexual favours in exchange for benefits they can dispense because of their positions in hierarchies including getting or keeping a job, favourable grades, recommendations, credentials, projects, promotion, orders, and other types of opportunities.[permanent dead link‍]
  9. ^ Ozler, Berk (February 16, 2012). "When it comes to female education, have we gotten it all backwards?". Blogs.worldbank.com. Archived from the original on February 10, 2013. Retrieved 2012-10-05. Mary Hallward-Driemeier … quantifie[d] the stories we all heard working in Africa: running a small business as a woman is also treacherous business. Many say they had to exchange sex with a person of authority (person in charge of a permit, border police, etc.) or a supplier in order to be able to go about their business.
  10. ^ "2012 State of the Field in Youth Economic Opportunities – A Guide for Programming, Policymaking, and Partnership Building" (PDF). Making Cents International. 2012. p. 84. 'Sextortion,' researched by Mary Hallward Driemeier, Lead Economist for Financial and Private Sector Development at the World Bank Group, is where sexual favors are traded instead of money for routine business dealings.[permanent dead link‍]
  11. ^ Fatoorehchi, Cléo (February 27, 2011). "Time to Drag Sextortion into the Light". Inter Press Service. Retrieved 2012-10-05. In their 2010 book 'Half the Sky', Pulitzer Prize-winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn write about a disturbing but not uncommon problem in Southern Africa – male teachers who trade good grades for sex with students. … There's a word for this – 'sextortion'.
  12. ^ Kujenya, Joke (June 28, 2012). "How randy judge killed five women, wife, by Justice Nyako". The Nation. Nigeria. Retrieved 2012-10-05. It is no longer a hidden complaint how students complain about lecturers demanding for sex for them to get good grades. So, if these instances are something that have been with us, then sextortion is also an age-long problem within our society ...[permanent dead link‍]
  13. ^ "Breaking the Silence around Sextortion: The Links between Power, Sex…". Transparency.org. 2020-03-05. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  14. ^ "Understanding Sextortion: More Than Just Blackmail". 2024-06-28. Sextortion is a form of blackmail where perpetrators threaten to reveal intimate images or videos unless the victim complies with their demands. This heinous act not only violates privacy but also leaves victims feeling vulnerable and powerless.
  15. ^ a b Sarah, Petz (4 Aug 2022). "Teen boys make up majority of victims of recently reported sextortion crimes, new data shows". CBC.
  16. ^ "Feds: Online 'sextortion' of teens on the rise". Associated Press. August 24, 2010. Archived from the original on August 17, 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-14. A stranger said he had captured her image on the webcam and would post the pictures to her MySpace friends unless she posed for more explicit pictures and videos for him. On at least two occasions, the teen did what her blackmailer demanded. Finally, police and federal authorities became involved and indicted a 19-year-old Maryland man in June on charges of sexual exploitation. ... One federal affidavit includes a special term for the crime: sextortion.
  17. ^ "SEXTORTION DILEMMA – BARING 'PLOT' WOULD EXPOSE GAY LIFE: MCG". 15 September 2006. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  18. ^ "'Sextortion': NCA releases awareness video". BBC News. 30 November 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference bbcnews1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ "Sextortion (webcam blackmail)". Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Retrieved October 6, 2019.