New ‘sextortion’ scam uses photos of your home to demand money: What to know

A New Orleans resident named Jane was sifting through her Gmail inbox on Sept 3, when an anonymous message caused her stomach to drop.

“I suggest you read this message carefully … We’re talking about something serious here, and I don’t play games,” the email read, addressed to her full name.

The threats began with a picture of her former house, captioned: “I know visiting (address) would be a more convenient way to reach in case you don’t take action. Look familiar?”

This latest Internet scam has targeted victims across the US, using real addresses and photos of their homes – screenshotted from Google Maps – to demand a ransom. If it happens to you, remain calm: The threats are empty.

Scammers claim to hack victims’ computers using spyware, threatening to release “embarrassing footage” to friends and family unless the victim immediately wires a sum of money – in Jane’s case, US$2,000 (RM8,469) via Bitcoin.

As terrifying as that sounds, police say the “footage” doesn’t exist.

“If a citizen receives one of these email scams, DO NOT PAY. The images of the home are from Google maps. Every victim receives the same email word for word,” said a representative from the NOPD White Collar Crimes Unit.

While extortionists claim the ability to track your movements, including calls to the police, there is no harm in contacting authorities.

“The citizen can file a police report if they desire. If they file a report, police ask that the email NOT be deleted as we can obtain information from it that will aid in the investigation,” the NOPD representative said.

Police say if you do not wish to file a report, you can simply delete the email.

What is sextortion?

Although this particular Internet scam contains hollow threats, “sextortion” and “revenge porn” are very real crimes. Perpetrators may nonconsensually share sexual images in order to demand a ransom, or simply to inflict emotional damage.

The first successful court case related to revenge porn occurred in 2010 in New Zealand, when a man received four months in jail for posting explicit photos of his ex-girlfriend on Facebook. Since then, courts have fought to keep up with rapidly-changing technology.

As of 2024, every US state except South Carolina has adopted laws to fight against revenge porn. The latest psychological threat, however, relates to pornographic images that aren’t even real.

Only 16 states have adopted laws to fight against “deep fake” or AI-generated porn, which uses a victim’s likeness to produce violating sexual content.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, has called for the adoption of the DEFIANCE Act, which would allow victims of deepfake pornography to seek legal recourse. It recently passed in the Senate and is now headed to the House.

“Women and girls from all walks of life … have been victims of this form of image-based sexual abuse,” Durbin said. “And, sadly, none of them have legal recourse against the perpetrators because the law is not keeping up with technology.”

How do scammers get the information?

Personal information like email addresses, cellphone numbers and home addresses are exposed all the time in data breaches, which is likely how these scammers found their victims.

Last month, it was revealed that the call and text message records of nearly all of AT&T’s cellular customers were exposed in a massive leak.

According to CNBC, users should protect themselves by changing all of their passwords, “particularly if you have repeated passwords among multiple websites. Ideally, you should enable multi-factor authentication for personal websites to help keep your financial data secure.”

Additionally, never share your personal information while using public Internet. – GulfLive/Tribune News Service