MIAMI (StudyFinds.org) – More people are being sexually blackmailed online during the pandemic, a new study warns. Researchers add that men are the number one targets of these crimes — threatening to publish explicit images or videos of the victim, a cybercrime called sextortion.
Other groups, including young people, black women, and members of the LGBTQ community are also likely to receive messages from online extortionists. The team says there’s been a substantial rise in sexual violence involving digital technology since the beginning of the global pandemic. While cyber offenses like “revenge porn” receive a great deal of attention, however, sextortion is slipping under the radar, according to the team.
More often than not, the culprit is a current or former partner, online dating scammer, or a stranger hacking into a person’s photos or webcam.
Pandemic living is raising the risk of cybercrime
Dr. Asia Eaton from Florida International University says reports of sextortion to the FBI are rising as many people transition to a more digital life for both work and socializing during the pandemic. Eaton’s team carried out a survey involving more than 2,000 adults in the United States during their study.
They asked participants whether they had ever been a victim of sextortion, which researchers define as “the act of threatening to expose a nude or sexually explicit image in order to get a person to do something such as send more…
