Tammy du Plooy of Alberton Victim Support has issued a strong warning to the public of a possible syndicate victimising men and mostly children.
The community is urged to be extra vigilant to not fall victim to a sextortion scam which is reported to being on the rise to online and social media users.
Referred to as ‘sextortion’, this is reportedly the practice of extorting money or favours from someone by threatening to reveal evidence of their sexual activity. The stringent warning comes after du Plooy received a number of phone calls from clients claiming to be distressed as a result of this malicious act.
In an exclusive interview, she told the RECORD victims are lured based on trust and later put in compromising situations where they are demanded money.
“These perpetrators usually reach out to victims through Facebook and mostly on dating sites. Children are commonly asked to pay about R300, while adults are often asked to pay at least R1 000 to R3 000 to have their photos deleted,” said du Plooy.
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She said one of her clients phoned to tell her that he had sent a compromising photo to another woman and was now being extorted.
“An hour later he then got a message from that person stating they would post and send his photo to his relatives if he didn’t pay R1 000. There has been an increase in these phone calls and it is mainly men, and now I’m getting phone calls about children,” said du Plooy.
Du Plooy added that she recently received a call from a parent whose child was also victimised.
“The 15-year-old boy was in a so-called relationship for three months, the girl then asked that he send her photos, which he did. He later got a text asking him to pay R300, if not they would then share his photos. His mother paid the money, two hours later he got another message demanding an extra R500,” she said.
According to du Plooy, there are hundreds of cases happening all the time and people do not want to share their stories because they find it embarrassing.
“The minute they pay, there’ll be another message demanding more money. People should not send photos to anyone, if you have to, make sure your face does not appear in the photograph. This is a syndicate and their phones are not ‘RICA’d’ and they always change numbers,” she said.
In other instances, these perpetrators are said to use other cell numbers where they send photos of random police officers offering to assist in resolving the matter.
“It’s unfortunate because police cannot intervene nor do anything about this because of its nature. If this does happen to a child, the child should immediately tell their parents. I advise victims to not make any payments but instead block the number and avoid any form of contact with the perpetrators,” said du Plooy.
