The methods varied, and the crime remained with an ugly face, despite the criminal mind hatching new ways of extortion to enter the soft sex to become one of its ribs; Dash cam technology has transformed from a means of documenting hit-and-run accidents, or documenting insurance fraud cases, into a tool of extortion in the hands of some. According to Consultant Liver, Digestive Canal and Endoscopy, Dr. Muhammad Al-Quwaiz, who confirmed on his Twitter page the practices of a few female residents driving their cars, and deliberately provoking car owners by overtaking them and then slowing down or making obscene signs while the dash cam is on. She waits for a similar reaction from the owner of the car, registers him, and then blackmails him by filing a harassment case.
Extortion methods are numerous; Including the alleged provision of massage services through women abroad, the allegations end with falling into the ropes of criminal networks working on filming and threatening scandal or extortion by paying money in exchange for silence, while many are reluctant to report for fear of accountability.
Massage.. the first way to fall
Software specialist, Engineer Saad Al Jaber, revealed that Saudi Arabia received more than 5.5 million tweets about massage services within a year, and it began to increase dramatically until it occupied most of the hashtag content in a strange and suspicious way. Pointing out the need to mute all common words on the subject and not to interact with this type of tweets that do not know who is behind their publication.
As for the academic and specialist in technology and e-commerce, Fahd Al-Bogami, he says: “One of the most dangerous methods of extortion is massage accounts. Who puts pictures of women and starts trying to communicate with phone numbers, after which the perpetrators search for the number in the numberbook and know the name of its owner.
Then comes an attempt to lure him to get a picture, a clip, or a video chat, and it ends up being published on Twitter and threatening him with a trend if he doesn't pay!
Among the most widespread methods of electronic fraud is the theft of personal pages on social media platforms (Twitter), (WhatsApp) and (Instagram), through which other victims are lured after impersonating the identity and identity of the first victim, and thus dropping several victims in one operation, facilitating obtaining money from them. before disappearing.”
They kept the extortion documents
Lawyer and legal advisor Abdulaziz bin Dabashi warned against wrong practices. Including responding to abuse by abuse, or assaulting others, indicating that extortion is one of the worst types of crimes, and extortion is a threat to a person with information, pictures, or anything that affects the reputation and status of a person to reach a specific purpose; Whether to obtain money in return for silence and silence, or a benefit.
Ibn Dabashi stressed that the case of extortion can be proven against the person who seeks to commit the crime of extortion by collecting all possible documents and evidence that prove the validity of the claim, and the evidence may be written or spoken threats.
Ibn Dabashi indicated that verbal extortion requires the presence of a witness, camera recording, or audio recording, and there are other new evidences with the technological progress that people are experiencing now. For example, text messages, e-mail messages, voice mail, and other modern means of communication.
He added, "The incident related to extortion must be documented and a complaint submitted to the competent authority, either by going to the police station or calling the anti-extortion number 1909."
He said, "The message of the threat must be preserved, the conversations photographed, the links sent by the perpetrator and all details and information that help prove the incident must be kept, according to the method of blackmail used by the perpetrator."
And if extortion is accompanied by defamation, then the penalty for defamation of others in the Kingdom, which considered defamation an insult to a person's dignity, and an insult to him, its punishment, as stipulated by the law, begins with preventing the crime from the beginning.
And protection for the victim, up to a two-year prison term, and a fine or one of the two penalties, for anyone who commits one of the crimes stipulated in the law, and includes some other crimes such as harassment, bullying, insulting, and ridicule.
Infringement of private life
Lawyer Ibn Dabashi explained that the Anti-Information Crimes Law covered in its provisions a group of crimes of an informatics nature, and stipulated their penalties explicitly within 16 articles. ; Every person who commits, through the information network or a computer, captures, intercepts, or illegally enters to threaten or blackmail a person; To cause him to do or refrain from doing an act, even if doing or refraining from doing this act is lawful, or unlawfully entering a website, or entering a website to change the designs of this website, destroying it, modifying it, or occupying its address. Anyone who infringes on private life by misusing mobile phones equipped with cameras, or the like, or commits the crime of defaming others and causing harm to them, through various information technologies, shall also be punished.
Ibn Dabashi warned of the need to maintain the confidentiality of personal information and not to disclose it to any unreliable party, and to maintain the security of e-mail by constantly changing the password and following the security policies associated with its use when creating mail, which may cause a person to fall victim to blackmail.
His requests are endless
The security expert, retired Major General Misfer Al-Jaid, confirmed that electronic extortion may take place through social media platforms, due to poor awareness and lack of knowledge of the rights and steps that must be followed when exposed to any extortionist. Who succeeds in accessing information or pictures that may be the cause of the crime of extortion.
He stressed that electronic blackmail is a process of threatening and intimidating the victim by publishing information or pictures of him and causing him defamation, scandal or silence, and thus exposure to blackmail by paying sums of money and exploiting the victim to carry out illegal actions in favor of the blackmailer.
He added, “Among those methods; The use of surveillance recordings or (dash cams) to achieve blackmail by committing an act or movement that may provoke the victim, and thus he commits an act that condemns him, and that act is documented through cameras and falls into the hands of the blackmailers, which necessitates paying attention to these actions, suppressing anger, and submitting any information or report to the competent authorities. ; Which performs its tasks in deterring the weak souls ».
Al-Juaid warned of how to get rid of electronic blackmail by stopping correspondence with the blackmailer permanently, disabling all channels of communication with him, not showing him any weakness or fear, and not being drawn into what the blackmailer demands. Because his requests are endless.
What is missed
The Health Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council called for educating children when using the Internet on ways to deal, warning against blackmailing them, under the hashtag “what they are silent about.”
The Council explained that there are three points you should remind your child of when using the Internet; The first is defining what is allowed to be shared online, so that they are not personal pictures from inside the home or of the child, or immoral pictures and videos, whether they are sent to relatives or strangers.
The second point is the importance of privacy and not publishing information about the child or family, such as: mobile number or housing or school data. The third point is that extortion is a crime and parents must be informed about it immediately in order to solve it.
The Health Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council recommended that parents be careful to educate their children when using the Internet, indicating how to deal with it through a set of points.
He explained that parents must specify what is allowed to be shared online, so that it is not a personal picture from inside the home or the child, or immoral pictures and videos, whether sent to relatives or strangers.
Job seekers abused
An official source in the Public Prosecution confirmed that the investigations of the Public Prosecution Prosecution proved that a citizen defrauded several women who were looking for work. By communicating with them and luring them through social media, by making them believe that he will hire them.
The source indicated that the accused asked his victims for private data and personal photos, in addition to copies of official documents and national identity, and then stored them on his mobile phone, and blackmailed them for bad intentions.
He explained that the accused was arrested and a public lawsuit was filed against him, to demand severe penalties in this regard.
The source affirmed that these acts are among the major crimes that require arrest, and called on everyone to protect personal data, and not to disclose or disclose it, except to the official authorities or through approved channels in this aspect.
He stressed that the Public Prosecution is continuing to combat fraud in all its forms and forms, and that whoever begged himself to exploit people and seize their personal data, with the intention of harming or blackmailing them; He will be referred to the competent court to apply severe penalties against him.
The Public Prosecution stressed the need not to deal with blackmailers or to agree to their demands. Whether material or moral, and the need to report in the event of exposure to any form of threat immediately and urgently when subjected to extortion, stressing the commitment of the Public Prosecution to complete confidentiality and speed in such cases.
The Public Prosecution prohibited all behaviors of the crime of extortion, which are generated by disrupting the will of the victim, robbing him of his choice and consent, and forcing him to accept what he did not accept voluntarily, such as threats or moral coercion, and this matter includes the use of a computer or information network, to obtain material or moral benefits.
Report «We are all safe»
The Human Rights Commission announced the mechanism of action in the event of exposure to extortion, defamation, or hacking of social media accounts, and called on citizens to report cybercrimes through the application of security communications, “We are all safe.” Hacking social media accounts (Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, etc.), defamation, and fraud.
Ibrahim Alawi (Jeddah) @i_waleeed22
