Explained: 'Sextortion', the new 'Nigerian prince' scam on Snapchat and Instagram

With time, trends change, and in this digital age, every day a new scam comes to light. The latest scam to shock the world is called "sextortion" and the victims are young men. These scams are happening on social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram.

Here's all you need to know:

What is 'sextortion'?

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The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines 'sextortion' as a "serious crime" in which a perpetrator threatens to make public their victim's private information, images, videos or other data. This includes nude images, and more often than not, is done as a way to extort huge sums of money.

In a conversation with Fox News, a former Snapchat employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said,"The potential harm, especially as it relates to minors, is severe."

He revealed that "We've seen thousands of reports this year. But … the ratio of reported to not reported is pretty high." He alleged that probably less than 5 per cent of the cases actually get reported.

Reportedly, on Snapchat, the issue began popping up more frequently around the beginning of 2021.

How does 'sextortion' work?

It's a financially motivated fraud. Do you remember the "Nigerian Princes" who around 20 years ago would email people asking them for "small help"? These days, those emails, and messages from bad actors posing as Nigerian royalty are nothing more than meme material and something that can be used to poke fun at the older generation.

Similarly, sextortion is the latest fraud. In it, similar bad actors target young, gullible men. Posing as attractive young women from the United States or Western Europe, these fraudsters send their victimfriendrequests.

Over time, they establish trust and eventually start requesting nudes. Once the victim sends the personal images, these "sextortionists" threaten to post these images online.

Threatening to expose the victims' nudes, they extort money.

As per the Fox News report, the former Snapchat employee told them that in some cases, the scammers paste their target's nude images on fake "FBI Most Wanted" posters. They list them as sex offenders, paedophiles, child rapists and murderers.

Incidentally, as per him, these new scams also mostly originate from Nigeria. However, he says,"It's pretty much understood that when we report this stuff, it's not going anywhere. The FBI doesn't have enough leverage with Nigerian authorities. Nigerian authorities don't have enough resources to do it, anyway."

Why target young men?

Simply put, "Young men are not used to this at all."

As per the former Snapchat employee, "They're targeting young men because young men are most likely to fall for this type of scheme."

He further remarked, "Also, young men are not used tobeing targeted like this."

According to the Fox News report, compared to young men, young women are not so easy to scam through this method. As young girls, they are taught to be cautious while talking to strangers online.

In cases where they do become a victim of sextortion, it is mostly about sexual content. They are mostly forced to send more sexually explicit content. However, young men face fraud where money is demanded from them.

Such abuse can have a huge devastating impact on young victims, especially teenagers, who do not know what to do or who to turn to for help.

Extreme, tragic steps by victims

In some cases, victims of such sextortion scams end up taking extreme steps. Fox News reports that, in some cases, young people have been known to resort to self-harm and suicide.

Last year, Jordan DeMay, a 17-year-old teenager from Michigan, took his own life after falling prey to sextortion. On 25 March 2022, the high school student was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

^{17-year-oldJordan DeMay. Image:Cerfia/Twitter}

On Instagram, he was approached by scammers posing as a young woman under the account alias "dani.roberts".

As per Fox News, the account was real, and it belonged to the real Dani Roberts, but was hacked. DeMay's nudes were used to leverage money, but once the young boy found himself unable to cough up any more money, he chose to end his life.

In another similar case, Gavin Guffey, the 17-year-old son of South Carolina state representative Brandon Guffey, killed himself after falling prey to a sextortion scam.

Back in July 2022, the young man was tricked by blackmailers posing as a young girl. After sending a nude picture, he faced extortion.

^{17-year-oldGavin Guffey (2nd from right) with his family. Image:ClickActu/Twitter}

As per a report by UK-based Independent, the recent high-school graduate ended up sending the scammers $25 by Venmo. This was all the money young Gavin Guffey had in his account.

He reportedly begged the blackmailers for time to raise extra money but was only pushed. Under pressure, the teenager chose to kill himself with a self-inflicted gun wound.

Even after his death, the sextortionists reportedly kept up their efforts to extort his family. As per a CNN report from May 2023, Representative Brandon Guffey reported that the messages started just weeks after the 17-year-old's funeral. On August 20, the day young Gavin Guffey would've turned 18, the blackmailers sent his father a message which said, 'Did I tell you your son begged for his life,' with a laughing face emoji.

(With inputs from agencies)

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