Cases of vulnerable people in the UK being sexually blackmailed has increased by 225% since 2015
Story by Matthew McLaughlin
There’s been a dramatic rise in number of people being blackmailed online in so called sextortion cases, which sees often vulnerable people being lured into performing intimate sexual acts on camera and being secretly recorded.
There were 400 incidents in 2015 and last year there were over 1,300 reported cases of sextortion in the UK.
Organised crime groups operating out of South-East Asian countries entrap their victims through online chatrooms before telling them the intimate footage will be leaked to their friends and family unless they agree to demands for payment.
The National Crime Agency have said that while this increase is dramatic that “tens of thousands” are still putting themselves at risk.
By the very nature of the crime very few victims of sextortion report the crime to the police and often have no way of knowing the identities of the criminals or how to get their money back.
The NCA believe millions of pounds is taken in by these organised gangs from the victims of this type of extortion in the UK each year.
The victims are sadly likely to be vulnerable young men or teenagers. One such victim was Daniel Perry from Dunfermline, who was 17 who took his own life in July 2013 after falling victim to a group operating from the Philippines.
There have been at least four other reported cases where victims of sextortion in the UK have taken their own lives with thousands more still at risk.
The National Crime Agency have urged victims to not panic, to not pay the demands and to call the police immediately.
