Sextortion is a growing crime in which criminals use threats of exposing sexually explicit photos or videos to extort money or other favors from victims. And Victims of this crime may experience catastrophic effects on both an emotional, social, and financial level.
An outline of sextortion law and self-defense tips for victims is provided in the said blog post.
Extortion is when you use compulsion, such as threats, to get someone to perform a task for you. The prevalence of the Internet and social media has given crime a new face. Similar to extortion, Sextortion is the act of illegally extorting money from someone to satisfy their financial demands through sexual exploitation and abuse.
Sextortion is when someone is coerced into doing something against their will by using guilt, leverage, or damaging information about them. Currently, these are all social media platforms for sextortion, such as Facebook, and Instagram, and Twitter is used for this commonly.
USA law does not classify sextortion as a separate felony. But if you are suspected of it, you could potentially face charges for other felonies including bribery and blackmail.
Let's look you at a few sextortion cases to better understand the penalties for this crime and the accusations the defendants were charged.
Although no specific enactment presently exists regarding sextortion in USA, you can be charged with several different crimes if you commit sextortion, including:
Depend on the circumstances of your case you could be charged with one or several of these crimes. Because sextortion generally involves crimes that do over the World Wide Web, you could be charged with a civil crime. Still, you could be charged with sexual exploitation of a minor under 18 U, if you’re indicted of committing sextortion against a minor .S. Code Section 2251. This law states that any person who forces or persuades a minor to engage in sexually unequivocal conduct can face up to 30 times in civil captivity.
Utmost sextortion crimes involve the use of a computer. However, you could be charged with unauthorized access to a computer under 18 U, if you hack a computer to commit sextortion. S.C. Section 1030. A felony conviction of this crime is punishable by over 10 years in prison and fines of a maximum of $ 250,000.
It’s important to understand the options available for pursuing legal action against the perpetrators if you have been a victim of sextortion. You can consider both civil and felonious proceedings to seek justice. In civil proceedings, you can file a action against the lawbreaker, seeking compensation for the damages you have suffered as a result of the sextortion. This can include fiscal losses, emotional torture, and any other detriment caused. In felonious proceedings, the state prosecutes the lawbreaker for their conduct, aiming to hold them responsible for the crime committed. Understanding the nuances of each option will help you determine the most applicable course of action grounded on your circumstances.
Civil and felonious proceedings differ in their nature, objects, and norms of evidence. In civil proceedings, the burden of evidence is generally lower than in felonious cases. You may need to demonstrate that it's more likely than not that the sextortion passed and caused you harm. The advantage of civil proceedings is that you have further control over the process and the eventuality for fiscal compensation. On the other hand, felonious proceedings bear the state to prove the guilt of the lawbreaker beyond a reasonable mistrustfulness. The advantage of felonious proceedings is that they can affect in the lawbreaker being held criminally responsible and potentially facing imprisonment or other felonious penalties.
Still, the decision to pursue felonious charges lies with the executing authority, and the process may take longer and involve less direct input from the victim.
Anyhow of the legal avenue you choose, having legal representation is essential. An attorney endured in handling sextortion cases can guide you through the legal process, cover your rights, and endorse on your behalf. They can help you gather and present supporting substantiation, similar as digital records, dispatches, or other applicable attestation, to strengthen your case.
Duly conserving and presenting substantiation is pivotal for both civil and felonious proceedings. It can substantiate your claims, establish a timeline of events, and contribute to the overall strength of your case. Working nearly with legal professionals and furnishing them with all available substantiation will greatly enhance your chances of carrying a favorable outgrowth in court.
When seeking legal expedient for sextortion, consider the options of civil and felonious proceedings grounded on your situation. Understand the advantages and challenges associated with each path and consult with an educated attorney to guide you through the process. Flashback, strong legal representation, and supporting substantiation are vital in presenting a compelling case in court. By taking decisive action and seeking justice, you not only empower yourself but also contribute to raising mindfulness and combating the intimidating frequency of sextortion crimes.
Valentina Pinto Sousa, plead guilty to extortion and unauthorized computer access charges after he hacked into computers belonging to dozens of young women–including Teen Girl of USA Cassidy Wolf–to obtain nude images and videos.
In court, Valentina Pinto Sousa admitted to using malware and remote administration tools to hack the webcams of computers and take nude photos of teenage girls and young adults. If the victims would not send him additional explicit pictures and videos, he threatened to post the pictures online.
Valentina pinto Sousa faced up to 10 years in prison and a Maximum fine of $1 million for his crimes but was sentenced to 19 months in state prison earlier this year.
If you are suffered with a crime related to sextortion, call an attorney at Askbylaw Associates today.
Louis John, of Antony Ana, was sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted guilty of computer hacking and wiretapping charges.
Authorities said Louis John disguised malicious software as music or videos and sent them to women and teenage girls. Through the software, Louis John could infiltrate more than 100+ computers and find sexually explicit photos in the computers’ memory.
He used the said photos to threaten victims, even following through on one threat when he posted nude images of a woman on her friend’s MySpace page.
Sextortion scams sometimes begin with seemingly innocuous contacts on social media or dating services. The victim will eventually be forced to transmit obscene photographs, get naked on camera, or perform sexual actions while on video by the offender. The photographs and videos that result can then be kept for ransom.
You find an email in your inbox that says the sender has one of your passwords. They threaten to publish your private images or videos until you give money, or explicit material, or engage in sexual activity. Many of these frauds rely on password harvesting, which could be a bluff unless you still have sensitive data on an old site.
Some of the creepiest sextortion situations involve the victim’s device getting infected with malware. Once inside, a hacker can gain access to cameras and microphones, as well as installing key loggers. This implies that someone could be watching your every step (in the vicinity of your computer). They can also find the passwords to all of your accounts using keyloggers. This may seem unlikely, but it happens more frequently than you might imagine.
Someone could get their hands on your sexual photographs or videos if you’ve ever sent them over social media or a chat app, or if you have them saved on one of those platforms. If you don’t comply with the demands, they may use your account to distribute the photographs to friends, relatives, and coworkers.
There is no specific "fraud" law on civil positions. A narrower law similar to the Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Division Act of 2019 ("Shield Act") is familiar, but the civil ordinance mainly enumerates other non-specific bills that cover the online aspects of the crime. According to a Brookings Institution study, there are several civil bills that have been used to try to prevent sextortion, especially those involving the death of children.
According to the Brookings Institution study, the most common civil enactment applied to make sextortion cases is 18U.S.C.§ 2251, which prohibits the sexual exploitation of children. Pursuant to§ 2251( a), “ Any person who employs, uses, persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any minor to engage in... any sexually unequivocal conduct for the purpose of producing any visual definition of similar conduct ” is subject to an obligatory minimal judgment of 15 times in captivity. Of the sextortion cases studied,§ 2251 was used in 55 to 65 of the cases.
Two affiliated bills — 18U.S.C.§§ 2252 and 2252A — are used to make the damage, distribution, and possession of material associated with child sexual exploitation and child pornography, specifically. Of the sextortion cases studied, these bills were used in roughly 38 and 24 of cases, independently.
Title 18U.S.C.§ 2422( b) governs the compulsion or enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual exertion. This enactment was used to make in 24 of sextortion cases. Still, like other applicable child pornography bills, this provision is applicable only in cases involving minors, which cases involve significantly more severe rulings than other general bills involving adult victims. For cases that don't involve a child victim or the specific sexual rudiments associated with sextortion, prosecutors may calculate on civil bills governing more general felonious geste , similar as highway robbery, stalking, or computer hacking.
The most relevant federal statute not specifically targeted at sextortion activity or minors, but that nevertheless is used to prosecute sextortion cases is the federal extortion statute—18 U.S.C. § 875 (d), which applies to:
Whoever with intent to extort from any person, any plutocrat or other thing of value, transmits in interstate or foreign commerce, any message containing, any trouble to injure the property, or character of the addressee or of another or the character of a departed person or any trouble to charge the addressee or any other person of a crime.
The extortion statute was used in 37% of the federal cases examined in the Brookings Institution report. Although other provisions within § 875 provide an enhanced 20-year sentence for the extortion of a ransom or a threat to injure the person of another, the coerced production of nonconsensual pornography warrants only a fine and a maximum 2+ year sentence.
When sextortion geste Is specially targeted against linked individualities, in 14 of cases, prosecutors have reckoned on 18U.S.C.§ 2261A, which is the civil stalking qualification.
In 17 cases, the civil acts presiding hacking or appropriation of gregarious media accounts have been exercised to make sextortion exertion. These are the civil identity larceny law ( 18U.S.C.§ 1028A) and the Computer Fraud and scurrility Act( 18U.S.C.§ 1030).
2. Cover yourself by being conservative about the information you partake online. Avoid telling sensitive details, similar as your address, phone number, or intimate images, to unknown individualities or on insecure platforms.
3. Be conservative of the information you partake on social media, as it can be used to exploit or impact you by malignant actors. Review and modernize your sequestration settings on social media platforms on a diurnal base to insure you have control over who has access to your particular information.
4. Strong passwords, secure online gesture, and sequestration settings play a vital part in precluding sextortion.
5. For all of your online accounts, including dispatch and social media, use unique and delicate passwords.
6. To add a redundant degree of security, enable two- factor authentication whenever possible. When dealing with individualities online, especially in converse apartments, social media, or dating apps, use caution.
7. Avoid participating unequivocal images or engaging in intimate exchanges with people you don't know well. Familiarize yourself with sequestration settings on social media platforms and acclimate them to limit the visibility of your particular information to trusted individualities only.
8. Mindfulness of sextortion warning signs and strategies to avoid falling victim is essential. Learn about the strategies used by extortioners, similar as blackmail, deception, and impersonation.
9. Be password for red flags, similar as unasked friend requests, requests for unequivocal images, or suspicious gesture from online contacts. However, trust your instincts and cut off communication incontinently. if someone attempts to force or manipulate you.
10. Flashback, It isn't your fault, and seeking backing is critical. Contact trusted musketeers, family members, or legal enforcement if you believe you're the victim of sextortion.
11. By staying informed and rehearsing caution, you can empower yourself to navigate the online world safely and help the ruinous consequences of sextortion.
You read carefully, Sextortion is a serious crime in USA today. That can have a devastating impact on victim.
Have you been the victim of a sextortion crime, so don't worry about it, As well as, we have sufficient resources available to provide you with affordable legal support.
You are not alone.
About the Author: Viren Dave is the founder and partner of a law firm called Advocate Askbylaw. He specializes in enhancing engagement and user peace of mind by helping troubleshoot user legal queries. And, starting his career as a lawyer, he supports solving many legal issues in civil, criminal, property, consumer, family, and corporate law. You can find him on his blog or under mentioned social links:
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