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58 held in Philippines over global ‘sextortion’ ring
AFP May 2, 2014.
Victims of sextortion online will have to pay to keep their sexual materials from being released, until they are unable to pay. – Reuters pic, May 2, 2014. Victims of sextortion online will have to pay to keep their sexual materials from being released, until they are unable to pay. – Reuters pic, May 2, 2014. Fifty-eight people have been arrested in the Philippines for their involvement in a giant, global Internet "sextortion" network, local police and Interpol announced today..
Victims have been lured by people posing as attractive, young women into giving sexually explicit photos or videos of themselves online, then blackmailed sometimes repeatedly for many thousands of dollars, the authorities said.
The 58 arrested in the Philippines were just a small part in an expanding global phenomenon that is being fuelled by the explosion of social media, the director of Interpol's Digital Crime Centre, Sanjay Virmani said.
"The scale of this extortion network is massive," Virmani said.
Philippine police chief Alan Purisima said the 58 Filipinos arrested would be charged over a range of crimes, including engaging in child pornography, extortion and using technologies to commit fraud.
Purisima said the scam typically involved the fake woman making contact with people overseas via Facebook and other social media, then seeking to establish a relationship with them.
"After getting acquainted with the victims... they engage in cybersex, and this will be recorded unknown to the victims," he said, adding webcams were used to record sexually explicit conversations and actions.
"They then threaten to release it to friends and relatives."
Purisima said victims paid between hundreds or thousands of dollars, sending their payments via Western Union and other money transfer remittance companies.
Scam destroys lives
While he said elderly men were often targeted, senior representatives of foreign police agencies also attending the press conference said minors were also victims.
Detective chief inspector Gary Cunningham, from the Scottish police force's major investigation team who also briefed reporters, said one teenager in Scotland had committed suicide after being extorted.
Cunningham said the boy was 17 when he killed himself.
More than 530 people in Hong Kong, many aged between 20 and 30, have fallen victim to the scam since the beginning of last year, according to Chief Inspector Louis Kwan, from the Chinese territory's police commercial crime bureau.
Kwan said Hong Kong victims had paid up to US$15,000 (RM49,016) in desperate attempts to keep the sexually compromising material private.
But, once hooked, the victims sometimes found they could not escape.
Kwan said some victims paid up to three times before going to the police, "when they realised they could no longer afford to continue paying".
However, authorities emphasised the Philippines was not the hub of the global "sextortion" scams, only that the current investigation had focused on the Southeast Asian nation.
"These crimes are not limited to any one country and nor are the victims. That's why international cooperation in investigating these crimes is essential," Interpol's Virmani said.
Purisima said authorities from the United States, Hong Kong, Interpol, Scotland, Singapore and Australia last year established "Operation Strikeback", which led to the 58 arrests.
"Operation Strikeback highlights international cooperation and coordination in dealing with cybercrime," Purisima said.
The joint taskforce was created at an Interpol meeting to tackle the "growing number of sextortion victims in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States", according to Purisima.
He said the taskforce was also focused on potential victims in Australia, South Korea and Malaysia, although other authorities at the press conference also said that people anywhere in the world with Internet access could be targeted.
More than 600 Hongkongers blackmailed by Philippines ‘sextortion’ ring, police say
Syndicate would trick victims into exposing themselves in front of webcams before blackmailing them, authorities say
PUBLISHED : Friday, 02 May, 2014, 11:59am
UPDATED : Friday, 02 May, 2014, 8:46pm
Associated Press
Sanjay Virmani, director of the Singapore-based Interpol Digital Crime Centre, speaks to the press in Manila about the online 'sextortion' scheme. Photo: EPA
Dozens of suspected members of a massive online “sextortion” syndicate that duped countless victims worldwide - including more than 600 from Hong Kong - have been arrested in the Philippines, officials said on Friday.
Syndicate members created Facebook accounts of young, attractive - but entirely fictitious - women to entice victims from around the world to strike up conversations with them, before sending them pornographic material.
They would then secretly record the victims after tricking them into exposing their bodies or having cybersex, and later threaten to send the videos to friends and relatives unless they paid amounts usually ranging between US$500 and US$2,000.
Hong Kong police inspector Louis Kwan Chung-yin said more than 470 people from Hong Kong were blackmailed last year and about 160 so far this year. In one case, a victim paid the equivalent of US$15,000, he said, adding that the victims were of various ages.
Philippines police arrested at least 58 Filipino suspects in Manila and other cities in the country after investigators from Interpol, the United States’ Homeland Security Department and other police agencies traced online chats from a number of the victims’ computers, said Philippine National Police chief Alan Purisima today.
Sanjay Virmani, director of the Singapore-based Interpol Digital Crime Centre, said victims were from Asia, Europe and the United States. The extortionists were tracked down using evidence from computers and intelligence information from police.
Issuing a stern warning to those still engaged in cyber extortion in the Philippines and elsewhere, Virmani said: “You had better be prepared for the consequences of your actions because, as you can see, we have made a commitment to work together.
"You will be caught and you will be held accountable for your actions.”
The Philippine National Police and International Police had dismantled international “sextortion” operations during simultaneous raids in seven areas, arresting 58 people and seizing 250 laptops and computers.
The Filipino criminal groups prey on foreigners overseas who engage in cybersex activities and extort money from them on threats they will upload their sex videos, said Alan Purisima, the national police chief.
Police said the “sextortion” syndicates have collected millions of pesos from hundreds of victims based in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, United States and United Kingdom in the last three to four years.
In Scotland, one teenage victim committed suicide last year after being blackmailed by the syndicate.
Scotland’s police officer Gary Cunningham said he was representing the 17-year-old boy’s family in tracking down those responsible for leading him to his death.
The boy’s family was “extremely supportive... in bringing to justice to individuals out there who have fallen victims to these crimes,” he said.
Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa, chief of the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group, said he could not specify the amounts extorted from the victims, but said they ran into millions of pesos.
“This is not an issue directly involving the Philippines exclusively,” British Ambassador to Manila Asif Ahmad said.
“Cybercrime is international, and is an international problem, it respects no nationality or borders. We are all potential victims of cybercrime, none of us are immune.”
