Sextortion

 

I could have also titled this "When Bad Things Happen to Good People"

One of my Burmese friends messaged me yesterday:  "I'm in trouble".   Here's what happened and this all unfolded on Saturday morning:

It started with messaging someone on Sniffies.

This extraordinarily good looking person wanted to meet him.   They exchanged some pics, including face pics and some x.   This guy wanted to chat on the phone, so they exchanged phone numbers and had a call.

Then it gets bad.  This person texted him a graphic collage of ALL his pictures with this heading:

Shameful nudes of GAY MAN!

Name, phone number, street address

Share and expose him nationwide so his family and friends will see it everywhere!!

Then another text message:  Should I go ahead and post or you want me to delete? I have all your family contacts.   A few accurate names were listed.

The demand was $2000.   My friend sent $1000.   That's all he had.  He can't afford that.    Sent via Zelle.

The guy blocked him on Sniffies and he hasn't heard anything else.

My friend comes from a culture where gays are not accepted.   If this graphic was sent to his family they might disown him, or worse.

I told him to not pay and go to the police or FBI.   He won't do that.  He doesn't trust law enforcement and thinks that they hate gays.   Will these people come back for more money?   Probably.

This is a horrible situation.  I do not know what else to do.   

There is a lot of personal information available on the internet.  I think you can request to have it deleted.   I'm figuring that out right now.   There is no reason to have all this available to the entire world.  I will help my friend delete his information.  I'll do it for myself too.  That would be a first step.

Any other ideas?