People looking for love in new year warned to be wary of scammers engaged in 'sextortion'

Sextortion occurs when someone is blackmailed as a result of sharing videos or images of themselves performing sexual activities with someone they met online. File picture

Scammers engaged in “sextortion” are leveraging loneliness and a desire for company by people looking for love, according to Ireland’s online watchdog.

In making a plea to people who are looking for love online, chief executive of Hotline.ie Mick Moran said: “If you find somebody who is willing to be sexual with you online, you have to see a red flag.

“Unfortunately, people might be a bit lonely around the holiday period and so their loneliness and desire for company is exploited by these scammers.” 

Sextortion occurs when someone is blackmailed as a result of sharing videos or images of themselves performing sexual activities with someone they met online.

He said the new year was also a time at which people can be susceptible to such scams as they seek to meet someone.

Scammers are out there and they are looking to leverage loneliness and a desire for company.

Mr Moran, a former Garda sergeant, said there was a notable number of reports received by Hotline.ie in the run-up to Christmas by people who were targeted by sextortionists.

But he warned the true number of people targeted is difficult to know for sure because many will not come forward to report being a victim.

“What they [criminals] end up doing is leveraging people’s shame. People are being sourced on regular dating sites. They get carried away and are sharing intimate images and it goes from there very quickly — it flips into a threat that the images will be shared unless they pay money.

“Our advice would be to have absolutely no further communication, definitely no payment, and reach out for some help. 

"Make sure you have the photos you uploaded, screenshots of any communication. Do not have further communication — go dark and lock down your social media. There is no need to delete your account because they will have moved on to the next victim. Make them private. Do not ring, do not answer the phone or any texts from them because once you do that, you are opening yourself up again to being scammed.” 

In its 2023 report, online watchdog Hotline.ie recorded a 210% increase from 2022 in sexual extortion reports, with 274 such cases.

In 2017, a Romanian national was sentenced in a Romanian court to four years in prison for blackmailing a teenager in Tyrone and producing and distributing indecent pictures of a child. Europol said the 17-year-old teenager died by suicide after being tricked into sharing intimate photographs of himself by posing as a girl online.