Sextortion is the practice of extorting money or sexual favours from someone by threatening to reveal evidence of their sexual activity.
61 Hongkongers including two 12-year-old boys who fell victim to sextortion scams and threatened to be blackmailed after their naked videos were secretly recorded have been coined out of HK $1.7 million over the past week, CyberDefender's Facebook page on Friday reveals.
Police said the victims met the fraudsters through dating apps. “They were lured into naked online video chats, where the fraudsters recorded videos of the victims,” police said. “The scammers then threatened to share these videos publicly if the victims did not pay them money.”
The crime commonly involves extortionists and mostly females who take off their clothes in front of their webcams to tempt victims into doing the same.
Then, they would secretly record their victims and afterwards threaten to circulate the video online or distribute it to the person’s relatives or friends unless a payment is made.
Police said there were 61 reports of such blackmail over the past week, resulting in losses exceeding HK$1.7 million.
“Among them, the youngest victims were two 12-year-old secondary school students, who met the scammers through the same dating app,” the force said.
According to police, “sextortion” not only leads to financial loss and emotional harm, but the recorded videos could remain online, having a lasting effect.
Police urged parents to pay attention to their children’s online social circles and to remind them to remain clothed during video chats while also avoiding conversations that were sexual in nature.
According to those records, in the first quarter of this year, police handled 479 reports of scams related to naked chats that involved financial losses of HK$12.7 million.
Cases of “sextortion” rose by 50 per cent to 2,117 last year from 1,402 the year before, while the amount of money the victims lost doubled to HK$44 million in 2023 from HK$22 million in 2022.
61名香港居民和兩名12歲男孩遭遇「性勒索」詐騙
CyberDefender Facebook 頁面週五透露，包括12 歲男孩在內的61 名香港人在過去一周被騙取了170 萬港元，其中包括12 歲男孩，他們的裸體視頻被秘密錄製後成為性勒索詐騙的受害者，並受到勒索威脅。
警方表示，受害者是透過約會應用程式認識詐騙犯的。 警方表示：“他們被引誘進行裸體在線視頻聊天，詐騙者錄製了受害者的視頻。” “詐騙者隨後威脅說，如果受害者不付錢，他們就會公開分享這些影片。”
這種犯罪通常涉及勒索者，而且大多數是女性，他們在網路攝影機前脫掉衣服，引誘受害者也這樣做。
然後，他們會秘密錄製受害者的視頻，然後威脅要在網上傳播視頻或將其分發給受害者的親戚或朋友，除非付款。
警方表示，過去一週共接獲61起此類敲詐勒索舉報，造成損失超過170萬港元。
警方表示：“其中，最年輕的受害者是兩名 12 歲的中學生，他們是透過同一個約會應用程式認識騙子的。”
警方表示，「性勒索」不僅會導致經濟損失和情感傷害，錄製的影片可能會保留在網路上，產生持久的影響。
警方敦促家長注意孩子的網路社交圈，並提醒他們在視訊聊天時保持衣著，同時避免進行性對話。
根據紀錄，今年第一季度，警方共處理了479宗與裸聊相關的詐騙舉報，涉及經濟損失1,270萬港元。
「性勒索」案件從前一年的 1,402 起增加了 50%，達到 2,117 起，而受害者損失的金額從 2022 年的 2,200 萬港元增加了一倍，達到 2023 年的 4,400 萬港元。
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