I’ve been looking around on dating sites and similar apps and I’m trying to be careful about sextortion scams. To reduce risk, I’m using a prepaid phone that I bought with cash, and I set up a new Gmail account that isn’t connected to any of my personal information. The phone hasn’t been connected to my home Wi-Fi and there are no contacts, address, or credit card tied to anything. My question is: if I ended up talking to someone who turned out to be a bot or a sextortion scammer and I sent private photos or did a video chat, what could they realistically do with that if they don’t know who I am? If they don’t have my real name, social media, or contacts, is there still a way they could track me down or actually blackmail me? Or would they mostly just try to scare me into paying? Just trying to understand what the real risks are before I do anything stupid.
It doesn’t matter if they know who you really are or not but it does matter if you either care if your content ends up on the internet or if they have the means to contact anyone in your circle that you wouldn’t want to see whatever’s being held over your head.
If you’re worried about it in any capacity, I’d consider contacting authorities as it’s illegal, at least where I live. If you are in the US, this page can give you some information on what can be done: https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety/common-frauds-and-scams/sextortion
I will say this, sextortion has become the new “fake event” online that low hanging scammers are using to make fast cash. The harder working groups actually catfish people to get the the content then immediately use it to try to make some fast cash while the 0 effort crews just shoot a shitton of texts and emails out threatening to release something they don’t even have.
If I shared content with anyone and they threatened to release it online, I wouldn’t give two shits about it. There’s enough NSFW content on the web where I could be confident that nobody would invest any more than a dismissive glance at my underwhelming physique and baby Napoleon.
Ty for your response my question just is is there anything that could realistically do they don’t have any of my contacts, so I’m not worried about them sending it to any friends or anything like that I just wanted to know if you think that they would actually post it randomly on the internet? Or is there anything else they can threaten me with
I just wanted to know if you think that they would actually post it randomly on the internet? Or is there anything else they can threaten me with.
I don’t think the sextortion scammers bother with actually posting this content, their goal is strictly monetary gain and everything that doesn’t help achieve that is a waste of their time.
Thank you so much really appreciate it
They can threaten you with anything. Follow through may be more difficult, but it’s easy for them to just post anything you send them online for everyone.
Worth noting if you have an Android phone it doesn’t matter that you didn’t connect to your home WiFi. Google probably already knows where that phone lives, and your carrier definitely does. It is therefore theoretically possible for an attacker to socially engineer that information (probably from your carrier) and use it, but that will cost more money then they get.
Easiest way to not get got is to not send photos you don’t want your grandparents or parents seeing to people on apps. If you want them to have photos meet up with them in real life first and exchange pics in person.
