How to avoid sextortion, or how to deal with it.

Just like 2022’s word-of-the-year, “gaslighting” – most Circles Life customers would have heard of “sextortion” – a crime where a person is “catfished” or tricked into sharing nude or sexual images of themselves then blackmailed with the threat that the images will be shared publicly online.

Reports of sextortion tripled in the first months of 2023!

Here at Circles Life, we want our customers to be safe online and we hope that most of you have avoided sex scams so far, but here are some tips to reduce the risk.

Keep social media accounts private

This is the ultimate protection. Online criminals, who are usually overseas, mostly target people whose profiles are public, especially on Snapchat and Instagram.

Sure, a private account isn’t for everyone, especially if you want to be an influencer, so the next best thing is let them follow your content, but if someone you don’t know slides into your DMs and starts the sexy banter, don’t respond, report them and block them. There’s a good chance they’re a scammer.

Everyone loves a bit of romantic attention, but the new-old rules of protecting yourself online still apply.

Meet IRL or it isn’t happening

People you engage with should be people you’ve met in real life, accounts linked to friends who can confirm their identity, or verified accounts with lots of history.

Red flags to avoid like the plague include:

• Relatively new social media profiles with only a few pics of the user
• People who get serious too quickly
• People who don’t want to meet before asking for explicit pics
• AND AND AND AND people who ask for explicit pics with your face showing

Dunk your head in a bucket of cold water to cool that desire and report/block them with extreme prejudice.

If things have already gone to shit and you’re being sextorted, here’s what to do.

Do not pay the scammer

Even if you do, they’ll probably just continue to blackmail you.

Start by getting some support from someone you trust, you know, the non-judgemental type who understands we all make mistakes sometimes. That person could also be one of the awesome people at Lifeline, Australia’s 24-hour crisis support service.

Also, definitely cease all contact with the scammer, screenshot the threats and report them to both the social media platform and Australia’s eSafety Commissioner – their website has plenty of advice for anyone looking to prevent sextortion and for people who are being blackmailed.

Scam guide deep dive

These days, sextortion is just one of many online scams people need to be aware of and avoid. Another scam on the rise is the “robocall” which uses AI to steal people’s voices from Tiktok and other video platforms and attempts to trick family members with, “I need help, send money” calls.

$3.1 billion was lost by Australians to online scams in 2022, so we’ve written a detailed scam guide to help people identify and avoid scams of all shapes and sizes. Read or download the guide here.

As for any online fraud, education, awareness of and alertness to the risks go a long way to preventing it from happening. Enjoy yourself on social media and please be safe while you’re doing it.