Sextortion

Quote:

The way he acted is familiar from other large cases. The now 29-year old man - residing in a Stockholm suburb - pretended online to be a boy of the same age while he persuaded girls to first send a relatively innocent image. Then he threatened to spread it if he did not get more. What distinguishes man from the other defendants in similar cases is that he has been quicker to resort to intimidation, according to prosecutor Emelie Källfelt. In some cases he threatened directly. He first surveilled the child's life by ascertaining their home address, school schedule and the like. In some cases, the man allegedly made girls perform such violent sexual acts on themselves that they received injuries. Because of the large number of plaintiffs (65 cases of suspected virtual sexual abuse, and 3 cases of defamation) the trial went on for almost six months. Victims who come from all over Sweden are aged between 11-20 years, and some have felt very bad and has not been able to be present in court. They have instead been heard via video link for the place they live in. ... The charged 29-year-old IT consultant denied committing the crimes during the trial and claims that someone else committed the abuse. He believes that someone had taken over his computer and remote controlled it.

http://ift.tt/1FwMHbL

This is really similar to other recent cases. What really exemplifies this type of abuse is how many victims they can abuse from afar without much physical effort since it largely happens remotely. It's not as if they have to travel across the country and photograph them. They don't even need or want to meet them in person at all.

Due to the fact that many of the victims blame themselves they are unwilling to tell either their parents or anyone else when threats about posting the images and/or videos online or sending them to their relatives, friends or schoolmates start. There's where the power of the extortion comes from: embarrassment and fear of ridicule.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1GmgB9l