U-M police issue Sextortion Warning for students
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WJBK) - University of Michigan police issued a "sextortion warning" Thursday regarding two recent incidents.
Two students reported that unknown subjects tried to extort money from them in exchange for not publishing explicit videos or photos online.
Both incidents, which occurred Nov. 12 and 14, began with Facebook friend invitations and escalated police said, into online chatting and videotaping before the money demands were made.
Police are cautioning that if any other students have received threats or demands for money over similar incidents with photos or videos, contact U-M police - even if money has already been paid.
Authorities say If you’re not on campus, contact your local police agency.
"The police will take your case seriously, dealing with it in confidence and without judgement." the release said.
Anyone being blackmailed in a similar situation should:
1) Don’t communicate further with the criminals. and don’t pay anything.
2) Do not delete any correspondence and take screenshots of all your correspondence.
3) Suspend your Facebook account (but don’t delete it).
4) Use the online reporting process to the sites such as Skype and YouTube to have any video blocked. Consider setting up an alert in case the video resurfaces.
Police say some precautions you can take to avoid being blackmailed on the internet are:
1) Never send compromising images of yourself to anyone, no matter who they are, or who they say they are.
2) Do not open attachments from people you do not know.
3) Turn off your electronic devices and web cameras when you are not using them.