Blackmail with sex photos: Numbers are increasing rapidly

“There is more and more blackmail with nude photos and intimate videos on the Internet,” reports Salzburg’s child and youth attorney Andrea Holz-Dahrenstaedt. The number of crimes of “blackmail on the Internet” has risen rapidly in the past year. Five years ago there were almost 500 convictions, in 2022 there were already 3500 convictions. The number of reports of sexual extortion almost tripled in 2022 compared to 2021.

This type of blackmail is called sextortion in technical jargon – composed of sex and extortion for blackmail. The mostly male perpetrators, who pretend to be young, attractive people of the same age, initially build up trust, and later victims are showered with compliments. As a result, adolescents are asked to send nude photos and corresponding intimate videos of themselves to these internet acquaintances. And they mercilessly exploit fear and shame, the scam always follows the same pattern. “The victims are extremely ashamed and bitterly regret having given something away. That’s why prevention is so important, since the clear-up rate for these offenses is less than five percent,” says Holz-Dahrenstaedt.