---BREAKAWAY CIVILIZATION ---ALTERNATIVE HISTORY---NEW BUSINESS MODELS--- ROCK & ROLL 'S STRANGE BEGINNINGS---SERIAL KILLERS---YEA AND THAT BAD WORD "CONSPIRACY"--- AMERICANS DON'T EXPLORE ANYTHING ANYMORE.WE JUST CONSUME AND DIE.---
Police in Singapore have issued an alert citing a dramatic rise
in the number of "cyber blackmail" cases being reported. But unlike many
cases that target women or teenagers, this latest rash of crimes targets men through social media sites.
The Singapore Police Force reports
that there have been more than 50 reported cases in the last year where
"foreign" women have lured men through invitations on social networks,
such as Facebook and Tagged.com, into video sex sessions that are
recorded for blackmail purposes.
The women "initiate cybersex" with the men over video chat, stripping
for them and then encouraging them to do the same. The men are told to
perform sex acts on camera for the women, and the video feeds are
recorded. The men are then contacted later and told that the videos will
be posted in public if the victims don't wire money to the scammers.
This is the second time this year that Singapore authorities have issued an alert regarding this sort of cyber-extortion. In August of 2012,
police issued a similar warning after having more than 32 reported
cases in the first half of the year. There were only 11 reports of
similar cases in all of 2011.
The trend in Singapore mirrors an increase in reported cases
worldwide where men are blackmailed over cybersex sessions. Last
October, for example, extortionists used video of a Quebec businessman
to attempt to extort him, even sending the video to the Canadian
Broadcasting Company's French-language service in an attempt to pressure
him to pay up. Five other men in Quebec and one woman were targeted by
the same scammers.
Crimewatch, a Singapore television program, re-enacts (poorly) one episode of the recent cybersex blackmail scam wave.
As Sophos' Graham Cluley points out,
the scam may go far beyond simple blackmail. The websites used for some
of these chat sessions could be used to spread malware as well—and the
scammers could even take over victims' webcams.
Singapore authorities issued the following advice to citizens regarding hooking up online:
Be wary of messages from unknown people who want to befriend you
Do not accede to any request that may put you in vulnerable
positions, such as performing compromising acts in front of the webcam,
or giving personal details about yourself when interacting with other
internet users
If anyone attempts to extort money from you or should you become a victim of such an attempt, call the police immediately
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