By Mary Agidi

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In recent times, there have been reported cases of individuals, both male and female who were lured into immoral or illegal sexual behaviours, like the habit of sharing their nude pictures or videos with either same or opposite-sex romance partners, which were later used to blackmail and extort the victims.

This recent practice of internet scam which is known as sextortion or honeytrap scam has led some victims to commit suicide.

While the majority of perpetrators of this heinous crime do it for financial tendency, some are using it as revenge against their former lover after breakup.

Sextortion takes different forms as it also involves threatening to distribute someone’s private and sensitive materials in their custody if the victim doesn’t provide the perpetrator with their nude images, sexual favors, or money.

The number of global sextortion cases reported to the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) more than doubled in 2023, rising to 26,718 compared to 10,731 the year before. The United States crime figures reveal that 27 boys committed suicide between 2022 and 2023 due to sextortion.

This development prompted the National Crime Agency(NCA), to issue an urgent public warning in April 2024, where it says “ Sextortion causes immeasurable stress and anguish, and we know there are adults and young people who have devastatingly taken their own lives as a result”.

According to NCA, all age groups and genders are being targeted, but a large proportion of cases have involved male victims aged between 14-18, adding that ninety-one percent of victims in UK sextortion cases dealt with by the Internet Watch Foundation in 2023 were male. It stated that these crimes can be perpetrated by organized crime groups based overseas, predominantly in some West African countries, but some are also known to be located in Southeast Asia.

In 2023, 156 cases of child sextortion cases were reported. The recent case involves 16-year-old Murray Dowey who committed suicide in Dunblane. He is the latest victim of a rise in extortion cases in the United Kingdom.

It was reported that Murray was contacted on a social media platform by someone claiming to be a young girl of his age, but who was a scammer. He was tricked into sending his nude picture and then blackmailed him with it.

On August 2023, two Nigerian brothers, Samuel Ogoshi 22, and Samson Ogoshi 20 were tracked down to Lagos for causing the suicidal death of a 17-year-old Jordan DeMay, an Australian boy residing in New South Wales.

The two brothers, who were extradited to the US, confessed during their trials in April 2024 to have pretended to be a beautiful girl of Jordan’s age and flirted with him on Instagram, sending him sexual pictures to coax him into sharing his explicit pictures. They then asked him to pay $500 or else they would share his nude pictures online with his friends. It was reported by the BBC that Jordan sent as much money as he could, and warned the scammers that he would commit suicide if they spread the images, but they told him to go ahead and kill himself. He reportedly died on that same evening in 2023. They are now awaiting sentencing for an offense that requires a mandatory minimum of 15 years jail term, while a maximum possible penalty is 30 years, according to the US Attorney’s Office.

Another Nigerian, 33-year-old Olamide Shanu, was extradited to appear in a UK Court in May 2024 for allegedly threatening to share nude pictures of teenage boys in London after he disguised himself as a teenage girl online. This act was said to have earned him as much as £2million, according to UK media.

 Just recently, a Yoruba woman who goes by the name, Mrs. Bolanle Adenekan, narrated her ordeal with sextortionists via a viral video to warn Nigerians to be security conscious.

 According to her, two armed young men gained entrance into her apartment and demanded cash from her, which she couldn’t provide as she had just N120 (One hundred and twenty naira)with her that day. The criminals asked her to open her mobile bank account, which she did, but unfortunately, there was not enough money in her two accounts to satisfy them. They now instructed her to undress and started taking her pictures and videos in her nakedness. Two days later, they forwarded those nude pictures to her with a threat to share them on social media platforms if she fails to pay the sum of N150,000.

Meanwhile, in response to several complaints received from victims of sextortion in the Nigeria Federal Capital Territory and its environs, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, in April, arrested some members of a notorious cult known for sextortion.

NAPTIP described sextortion as a sexual exploitation which is punishable under the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015(as re-enacted).

Speaking on the development in Abuja recently, the NAPTIP Director General, Professor Fatima Waziri – Azi expressed grave concerns about the incremental cases of sextortion perpetrated by mostly young men against young girls within the FCT and called for increased vigilance among parents and stakeholders.

The NAPTIP Director General explained, “After the criminals have one or more videos or pictures, they threaten to publish that content, or they threaten violence, to get the victim to produce more images. The shame, fear, and confusion victims feel when caught in this cycle often prevent them from asking for help or reporting the abuse.”

Prof. Fatima Waziri-Azi advises young girls to be aware of this trend and protect themselves by reporting all cases of sextortion to NAPTIP, saying “Do not be afraid to speak up. Do not be gaslighted into thinking it was your fault. It is a crime and a crime against you. Report all perpetrators. If you do not report, you are emboldening these criminals, and what happened to you will happen to someone else’.

“Parents, please support your children if they report cases of sextortion to you. Do not revile them. A lapse in judgment should not lead to condemnation.

“If you or someone you know is a sextortion victim, you can help stop the harassment by reporting it to NAPTIP. Save all conversations, chats, or messages between yourself and the perpetrator.

“Do not pay or share more of your sexual images with them. Your webcam or recording devices can be activated remotely. As such, never have your phone or other electronic camera devices pointed at you while undressing or in a position, you would not want to share with the world. Be smart and stay safe”. Prof. Fatima Waziri – Azi, stated.

The large involvement of Nigerian youths in internet scams as a means of survival has placed the country on the world map of the alleged habitat of most perpetrators of sextortion in West Africa. Many young Nigerians who are tech savvy have been indicted of involving in sextortion for livelihoods, many of who are now being referred to as “Yahoo boys”.

As a way of curbing the act, two months ago, Meta removed 63,000 Instagram accounts linked to sextortion in Nigeria. Meta added that it had taken down thousands of Facebook groups and pages that were trying to organize, recruit, and train new scammers. This reaction by Meta is a pointer that many young Nigerians are truly involved in sextortion, even though, the allegation was refuted by the National Cybercrime Centre, NCCC, with assurance that the Nigerian government is working hard to prevail on the situation and that it is a global phenomenon that needs joint support.

Contributing to this, an Educator cum technology expert, Mr. Kayode Ajomole, averred that the fundamental way of dealing with sextortion is by encouraging young persons to limit how they share their private information with people.

He says: “The Internet never forgets, it doesn’t matter how much you want to clean up, it’s always difficult to clean. So I think the first part is to ensure that you limit what you share”.

He advised utilizing some features embedded in social media applications like WhatsApp that allow disappearing messages, which also allows users to share items, and once the person sees it, it can be deleted immediately.

Ajomole underscores the importance of creating a safe space where individuals can share their feelings without being bullied. He affirmed that if victims realize they are protected from cyberbullying, they’ll be courageous to share what they’re going through rather than resorting to suicide.

 While advocating public laws and regulations that would help checkmate and caution the activities of extortionists, he noted that legally restricting another party from sharing another’s private property would help prevent the heinous act.

Also speaking, the Executive Director of Faracare Foundation for Human Development, FARDEF, Mrs. Olufisoye Adenitan emphasized the need for increased education on sextortion and digital literacy to help people avoid becoming victims. She encourages victims to speak out and also calls on law enforcement agencies to prosecute perpetrators as an approach to curb the act.

She advocates sanitizing online platforms by removing untraceable accounts and explicit content to make the internet safer as recently done by Meta. She stresses the importance of protecting victims when they report cases, rather than blaming them, to prevent them from committing suicide.

The FARDEF Director also highlights the need for awareness campaigns to combat sextortion, saying “It’s important that we educate our people on what sextortion is even all about, because a lot of people don’t know what they get themselves into.

“Awareness creation cannot be ruled out. Media and civil society organizations should embrace campaign against sextortion”.

On her part, the Chief Executive Officer of Community Development and Adherence Support Initiative, Mrs. Odigie Irene, identified good parenting as one of the approaches to prevent young ones from falling victim to sextortion and also becoming actors of such acts.

“Parental care is lost. If parental care is there the child will be free to discuss issues with the parent. Allowing children to attend educative training programmes like Kids & teens, and gatherings like “Say End To Violence”, will help expose them to the pros and cons of social media usage”.

She, therefore called on policymakers to enact and implement policy that would curb this act, while also emphasizing the need for sincerity in adjudication.

FBI’s hints on sextortion state that- Online perpetrators might gain victims’ trust by pretending to be someone they are not. They lurk in chat rooms and record young people who post or live-stream sexually explicit images and videos of themselves, or they may hack into their electronic devices using malware to gain access to their files and control their web camera and microphone without them knowing it.

FBI listed some things one can do to avoid becoming a victim: They include, “Never send compromising images of yourself to anyone, no matter who they are—or who they say they are, Do not open attachments from people you do not know, turn off your electronic devices and web cameras when you are not using them.

As much as awareness creation is important in preventing netizens from falling victim to sextortion, the need to also regulate users’ activities on internet applications by their founders becomes imperative. The step taken by Meta is commendable as it further announced its next plan to curb sextortion. In April, Meta announced it was rolling out new tools on Instagram, including a feature that will automatically fade nudity in direct messages, though Meta is still testing these features as part of its campaign to combat sex scams and other forms of “image abuse.