Police in Cyprus are calling on social media users, particularly men, to be careful when they go online to avoid fraudsters who may use sexy or provocative ways to extort money from them.
This is the latest term – sextortion, which is a real crime defined as blackmail in which sexual information or images are used to extort sexual favours or usually money from the victim.
The Cyber crime unit has already seen a number of cases on the island, where men connect virtually with another user in a video chat, where they both can see and talk to each other.
The other person, typically a woman, often invites the man to use a more popular video chat program, such as Skype, where the two are completely free in their own privacy to do whatever they want, including taking off their clothes and having erotic adventures by looking at each other.
Typically the woman will start taking off her clothes and perform sexual acts, prompting the user on the other end to do the same, while both can see each other at the same time.
But the woman or an accomplice would be recording the man, often without his knowledge.
Leter, the woman or her accomplice would typically contact the man and threaten to release the video of him in public, unless he would pay up some money.
Sextortion is a global phenomenon and has become very common as more and more people go online in the privacy of their own homes, seeking entertainment that allows them to interact with another real person.
Men and women, as well as younger and older users, have been involved in sextortion cases, with one of them being the unsuspecting victim.
Police say under no circumstances should people ever pay up, as this could get them entangled in bigger adventures where they may have to pay even more money.