Rising cases of scams after intimate photos sent - PSNI

[Sherman A1]

Police in Northern Ireland have launched a campaign to raise awareness of blackmail scammers who trick victims into sharing intimate images of themselves online.

The blackmailers then threaten to send the images or recordings to family, friends or work colleagues unless a ransom is paid.

The PSNI said it chose Valentine's Day to launch the campaign to urge the public "to get wise to the amorous advances of online fraudsters."

Police say they are dealing with increasing reports of the practice, referred to as 'sextortion', which starts with criminals using a false identity to befriend victims online.

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2022/0214/1279632-psni-warning/

[Dreampuff]

1. That's interesting since that same scam had gone around our area a couple of years ago.

We had also gotten an email, but we figured they can just knock themselves out trying to find compromising pictures of us online. The scam that was happening here claimed they had already found pictures of their victims and they were going to release them slowly. They wanted $6,000 or they would release them to family and friends and their next step was to release them on social media. We contacted our local police, which of course just blew it off, but a few weeks later they had a news story on our local channel. I always wondered how many people fell victim to them.