Top related persons:
Top related locs:
Top related orgs:

Search resuls for: "sextortion"


25 mentions found


He doesn't plan on giving his children smartphones until they leave home. Archer is part of a nationwide parents pact that aims to delay giving children smartphones. I have two children, one 9-year-old and one 7-year-old, and I'm not planning to give them smartphones until they leave home. AdvertisementI don't judge parents who already have given their children smartphones. Collective actionI recently signed up for the Smartphone Free Childhood Pact, a group of parents who pledge to delay giving their children smartphones.
Persons: Rob Archer, Archer, , I'm, you'll, we've, I've, they're, it's Organizations: Service, Pact Locations: London
Meta is ramping up its efforts to fight sextortion on Instagram with the launch of new features that are designed to help prevent young users from getting blackmailed into sharing nude photos. Starting Thursday, Instagram will automatically block follow requests sent to teenage users from accounts that display certain “scammy behaviors,” according to Meta. At a Senate online child safety hearing in January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to parents who said Instagram contributed to their children’s suicides or exploitation. Last month, Meta announced it will begin automatically placing all users under 18 into “teen accounts” with stricter privacy settings. “If they really want to promote meaningful change and online safety for kids and teens, they can stop opposing federal solutions like the Kids Online Safety Act,” Hinkle said.
Persons: sextortion, Instagram, Antigone Davis, Meta’s, , we’ve, , Mark Zuckerberg, Haley Hinkle, , ” Hinkle, they’re, Davis, Hinkle Organizations: Meta, FBI, NBC News, Kids, Senate Locations: Fairplay, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia
Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailMeta launches new Instagram campaign to tackle teen sextortion scamsAntigone Davis, Meta VP and global head of safety, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the company's new Instagram campaign and safety features to fight online sextortion scams, what the new safety features entail, and more.
Persons: Antigone Davis Organizations: Meta
krisanapong detraphiphat | Moment | Getty ImagesInvestors are at a heightened risk of cryptocurrency scams tied to fake relationships established over social media, dating apps and networking sites, federal officials warn. Last month, the SEC brought its first-ever enforcement actions tied to crypto relationship frauds. Crypto scam losses 'can be huge'Crypto, examples of which includes bitcoin and ethereum, is a digital currency. watch nowThere are "many variations" of crypto investment fraud, but the most prominent last year was the relationship scam, the FBI said. Jules, a victim of a crypto relationship scam, detailed her experience with the crime on a new FINRA podcast.
Persons: krisanapong, Fraudsters, Grewal, CoinW6, Kim Casci, Palangio, Micah Hauptman, Hauptman, Jules, , Crispin La Valiente Organizations: Finance, FBI, Securities, Exchange Commission's, SEC, LinkedIn, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Consumers, Support, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Consumer Federation of America Locations: Seattle
The New Mexico attorney general said Tuesday that internal documents from Snapchat released as part of an ongoing lawsuit show how the platform failed to manage and notify users about sextortion on the platform. The suit, which Attorney General Raúl Torrez originally filed in September, includes the text of some of Snap’s internal correspondence. Snapchat and other social media platforms, like Instagram and TikTok, have been under intensified scrutiny from both the federal and state governments. Leaders of Snap, TikTok, Meta, Discord and X all testified before Congress this year about child safety. In a statement on its website Tuesday, Snap said it has built a platform with “safety guardrails” and “deliberate design choices” to protect minors.
Persons: Raúl Torrez, sextortion, ” Torrez, Slack, , Organizations: New, NBC, Meta Locations: New Mexico
Federal and state police across the country warned about a rise in the number of email "sextortion" scams this month. The Maryland State Police said in a statement on Thursday that reports of one sextortion scam targeting Gmail users surged in August and September. In these scams, someone tells a victim they have access to embarrassing search history or compromising photos. This means the scammers may have access to your email and even some of your current or former passwords, but they do not have access to your computer or search history. The Maryland State Police say to be cautious of any "unsolicited" emails you receive to your Gmail account to avoid being the victim of a scam.
Persons: , bitcoin, They're, they've Organizations: Service, Maryland State Police, Business, FTC, Google Locations: Federal, Maryland
The White House wrote that image-based sexual abuse “has skyrocketed,” disproportionately affecting women, children and LGBTQ people. More nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfake videos were uploaded online in 2023 than all previous years combined. Franks said that while the voluntary efforts the White House highlighted are welcome, she does not see them as a substitute for legislation. Still, he said, the Biden administration’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’ focus on gender violence, online harassment and image-based sexual abuse was “transformative” compared with the work of previous administrations and the impact it has on victims and their advocates. On Google’s search engine and Microsoft’s Bing, NBC News previously found that nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes were available at the top of some search results.
Persons: , deepfakes, , Mary Anne Franks, “ It’s, Franks, Biden administration’s, Kamala Harris ’, Microsoft’s Bing, Alexandra Reeve Givens Organizations: White House, ” Tech, Meta, Microsoft, Group, Center for Democracy and Technology, Civil Rights Initiative, National Network, Civil, Initiative, Communications, Google, NBC News, NBC, Facebook
The New Mexico attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Snap , alleging that the design and algorithmic recommendations of its social media app Snapchat "openly foster and promote illicit sexual material involving children and facilitate sextortion and the trafficking of children, drugs, and guns." The suit calls Snapchat "a breeding ground for predators to collect sexually explicit images of children and to find, groom and extort them." New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who has a pending lawsuit against Facebook owner Meta alleging the company enables the sexual exploitation of children, in a statement Thursday said, "Snap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold, and stored indefinitely." "Through our litigation against Meta and Snap, the New Mexico Department of Justice will continue to hold these platforms accountable for prioritizing profits over children's safety," Torrez said.
Persons: Snapchat, General Raúl Torrez, Torrez Organizations: New, Facebook, Meta, New Mexico Department, Justice Locations: New Mexico, Mexico
New York CNN —Meta failed to remove an explicit, AI-generated image of an Indian public figure until it was questioned by its Oversight Board, the board said Thursday in a report that calls on the tech giant to do more to address non-consensual, nude deepfakes on its platforms. The report is the result of an investigation the Meta Oversight Board announced in April into Meta’s handling of deepfake pornography, including two specific instances where explicit images were posted of an American public figure and an Indian public figure. But in the case of the Indian public figure, although the image was twice reported to Meta, the company did not remove the image from Instagram until the Oversight Board took up the case. “Meta determined that its original decision to leave the content on Instagram was in error and the company removed the post for violating the Bullying and Harassment Community Standard,” the Oversight Board said in its report. The push to fight non-consensual deepfakes is just part of Meta’s larger efforts to prevent the sexual exploitation of its users.
Persons: New York CNN — Meta, Taylor Swift, “ Meta, Meta, , sexualized Organizations: New, New York CNN, Facebook, Meta, Board Locations: New York, American, Indian, Instagram, Nigeria
The company on Tuesday announced a set of new safety features, including expanded warning pop-ups that appear when a teen receives a message from someone they don’t share mutual friends with or have in their contacts. And Snapchat will now prevent the delivery of friend requests for teens to or from an account that they don’t share mutual friends with that is also located in regions often associated with scammers. Meta in April also announced new features aimed at combating sextortion, including informing users when they’ve interacted with someone who engaged in financial sextortion. Now, when a user blocks another account, any new accounts created on the same device will also automatically be blocked. The updates build on Snapchat’s existing teen safety features, which include a “Family Center” where parents can supervise the behavior of 13- to 17-year-old users, and mechanisms for removing age-inappropriate content.
Persons: New York CNN —, aren’t, ” Snapchat, Jacqueline Beauchere, sextortion, they’ve Organizations: New, New York CNN, CNN, Meta, Prevention Locations: New York
The Instagram message popped up from a girl named Chelsea: “Howdy.”David didn’t know anyone named Chelsea, but he clicked through her profile: She had brown hair and a nice smile; under her name was a quote from the Bible. He was hesitant when she asked him to chat, but soon her flirty messages escalated to a volley of explicit pictures, and David, a 32-year-old pharmacy technician, got carried away. When she asked him for a nude, he hardly thought twice, he said. He slipped into the bathroom at the New Jersey hospital where he works, took a picture and hit send. David’s phone lit up with messages: pictures he had sent with his genitals exposed alongside screenshots of his Instagram followers with whom he shares a last name — his family.
Persons: “ Howdy, ” David didn’t, selfies, David, , Organizations: Chelsea, Department of Homeland Security Locations: Chelsea, New Jersey, Nigeria
“Paying rarely stops the sextortion,” said Susan Kennedy, the director of community of engagement at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Block the harasser, but don’t delete your account. “You don’t want to fully delete your profile, because there will be information on there that law enforcement can use,” Ms. Kennedy said. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children runs an anonymous tip line to report incidents both online (report.cybertip.org) and via telephone (800-843-5678). To reach the center via email: gethelp@necmec.org.
Persons: , Susan Kennedy, Ms, Kennedy Organizations: National Center for, Children
Romance scams typically targeting baby boomers and older generations are becoming increasingly popular on dating apps and websites, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Just last year, the FBI's Internet Crime Report estimated that Americans lost more than $650 million to romance scams. Bernard Kim, CEO of Match Group, spoke with CBS News on the growing threat of online romance scams carried out by people overseas. Match Group — which owns Match.com and Tinder — is the largest online dating company in the United States. Match Group did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider.
Persons: , Bernard Kim, Kim, Grady Judd, Judd Organizations: Service, Federal Trade Commission, Business, FTC, Match, CBS News, CBS, Match Group Locations: United States, Polk County, Florida
WhatsApp lowers minimum age in Europe to 13
  + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Anna Cooban | Eve Brennan | ) edition.cnn.com   time to read: +3 min
London CNN —Social media giant Meta has lowered the minimum age required to use WhatsApp in Europe to 13 from 16, sparking criticism from children’s rights advocates. The new minimum age of 13 was also announced for users in the United Kingdom in February. Vicky Ford, a UK lawmaker from the ruling Conservative Party and member of a key government committee on education, called the decision to lower the minimum age without speaking to parents first “irresponsible,” PA Media reported. Meta under fireMeta has been roundly criticized in the past for its push to lower age restrictions across platforms in the United States. Last year, the company said it was planning to reduce the minimum age for its virtual reality app from 13 to 10 years old, despite pressure from US lawmakers not to market such services to younger users.
Persons: , , Daisy Greenwell, , Vicky Ford, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Europe — Meta Organizations: London CNN — Social, Conservative Party, Media, CNN, European Commission, Meta, Facebook, Europe — Locations: Europe, United Kingdom, United States
Instagram to crack down on teen sextortion
  + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com   time to read: +4 min
The company announced on Thursday it is testing new features to curb an alarming trend called financial sextortion, which often targets kids and teenagers. Once the nude images are sent, the scammers claim they’ll post them online, either on public websites or on newsfeeds where their friends will see, unless the victims send money or gift cards. In the upcoming weeks and among a subset of users, Instagram said it will roll out various new features, such as blurring nude images sent in direct messages and informing users when they’ve interacted with someone who engaged in financial sextortion. But the FBI recently said it has seen an increase in financial sextortion cases from strangers, often started by scammers overseas. Meta said it is also working on ways to identify accounts that may be engaging in sextortion scams by detecting and monitoring likely sextortion behavior.
Persons: Instagram, they’ve, ” Antigone Davis, “ It’s, sextortion, Meta, Meta Meta, ” Davis, , Organizations: CNN, FBI, National Center for, Meta, Tech Coalition
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect comments attributable to Chris Hill, an NCRI board member and chairman of the Police Athletic League, a nonprofit youth development group.
Persons: Chris Hill Organizations: Police Athletic League
Cavan Images | Cavan | Getty Images"Financial sextortion," a type of cybercrime that targets teens and tweens, is on the rise. "Sextortion is a rapidly escalating threat," FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee in December. Financial sextortion is the fastest-growing crime targeting children in North America and Australia, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute. Wealthy parents are more likely to be lenient about social media use. How to protect your kids from sextortion
Persons: Christopher Wray, Sen, Dick Durbin, Criminals, Tracy Kitten, Kitten, didn't, Oladosu, sextortion Organizations: Getty, FBI, Finance, Network, Research, Yahoo Boys, Meta, Strategy, U.S, YouTube Locations: Cavan, North America, Australia, African, U.S, Nigerian, bitcoin, sextortion
download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. But his consistent criticism of some of the real issues happening in Big Tech has sometimes reminded me of a classic Clickhole headline: "Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point." Section 230 is controversial and has become a rallying point for some conservatives and others, who think it allows Big Tech to hide from criticisms that it isn't fair to all sides. Clearly, these big platforms haven't succeeded — sometimes motivated by a whole bunch of internal factors, including profit. AdvertisementBut if there were some magic bullet to stop child exploitation, I truly believe the companies would've used it by now.
Persons: , Sen, Josh Hawley, Hawley, Mark Zuckerberg, flay, Sundar Pichai, Zuckerberg, Utah Sen, Orrin Hatch, Zuckerberg blinked, Meta, sextortion, Marsha Blackburn, Wednesday's, there's Organizations: Service, Big Tech, Republican, Business, Twitter, Google, Facebook, Street, Meta, ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation Locations: Big, Missouri, Utah, Florida, Tennessee
Wizz was removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play this week. Wizz, a social media app growing popular among teens in the U.S., was removed from the Apple app store and Google Play this week. A Google spokesperson said that the Wizz app was suspended from Google Play, the online store for Android apps, on Tuesday. "But if the app store doesn't continue to carry it, they cannot sustain, let alone grow, their user base." Wizz declined to say what steps it would take to try to get reinstated on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Persons: Wizz, Goldman Sachs, Adam Sohn, Alex Goldenberg, Goldenberg Organizations: Apple, Google, National Center, Sexual, NBC News, Network, Research, FBI, Meta Locations: U.S, French, Miami, United States, North America, Australia
CNN —On Wednesday, the chief executives of Meta, TikTok, X, Snap and Discord testified before the Senate about what they’re doing to protect kids from harm online. In the leadup to the testimony, tech companies announced new initiatives to protect kids. The Stop CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) Act of 2023 would make it possible to hold tech companies civilly liable for hosting child sexual abuse material. This would be an important way of incentivizing tech companies to do more to protect kids from sextortion and other forms of online exploitation. Tech companies also have a lot more work to do.
Persons: Kara Alaimo, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok’s Shou Chew, Democratic Sen, Dick Durbin, Snap’s Evan Spiegel, X’s Linda Yaccarino, Discord’s Jason Citron, Kara Alaimo Durbin, , , ” South Carolina Republican Sen, Lindsey Graham, Chew, Yaccarino, Spiegel, Zuckerberg, it’s, Taylor Swift Organizations: Fairleigh Dickinson University, Women, Press, Facebook, CNN, Meta, Senate, Democratic, Illinois, ” Senators, ” South Carolina Republican, Tech, Media Locations:
CNN —About two weeks after his oldest son’s funeral, South Carolina state house Rep. Brandon Guffey says he received a private Instagram message with a laughing emoji. Then Guffey and his younger son began to get messages demanding money in exchange for nude photos of his late son. South Carolina State Rep. Brandon Guffey in an undated photo with his wife, Melissa, and their sons, Gavin, 17, Coen, 16, and Callahan, 4. Minutes before he died by suicide in July 2022, Gavin Guffey sent his brother and friends this text message. South Carolina state Rep. Brandon Guffey, right, has lobbied hard for tougher penalties for sextortion scammers.
Persons: Brandon Guffey, Gavin Guffey, Guffey, Gavin, Melissa, Coen, Callahan, they’ve, Gavin Guffey texted, Gavin texted, Henry McMaster, scammers, Brandon Guffey “, ” Guffey, , , , “ Meta, It’s, ” Douglas DePodesta, ” Gavin Guffey, Jordan DeMay, Ryan Last, sextortion scammers, I’m, they’re, “ They’re, he’s, He’s Organizations: CNN, Meta, South Carolina State Rep, Gov, FBI, United States Attorney’s Office, Western, Western District of Michigan, Facebook, Rep, sextortion, Communications Locations: South Carolina, , Rock Hill , South Carolina, Venmo, Memphis, United, Western District, Nigeria, Marquette , Michigan, San Jose , California
In the US, romance scams resulting from catfishing have among the highest reported financial losses of internet crimes as a whole. A 2019 study found that young LGBTQ+ men in rural America experiencing catfishing on dating apps felt angry and fearful. She also emphasized the need to recognize today’s loneliness epidemic, which “leads people to perhaps be more susceptible to catfishing scams,” she said. Catfishing is not explicitly a crime, but the actions that often accompany catfishing, such as extortion for money, gifts or sexual images are crimes in many places. In the US, romance scams resulting from catfishing have among the highest reported financial losses of internet crimes as a whole.
Persons: CNN —, Nev Schulman, “ Megan ”, Schulman, Evita, scammers, Catfishing, Snapchat, , Ngo Minh Hieu, Chong, Hieu, Wang, , It’s, Fangzhou Wang, ” Wang, Maryna, WeChat Organizations: CNN, Cybersmile Foundation, Federation University, Fraud Intelligence, INTERPOL, Research, US Federal Trade Commission, SMS, University of Texas, Arlington, Getty, Facebook, UNICEF Locations: Alaska, Australia, Singapore, Southeast Asia, France, Germany, India, cryptocurrency, Vietnamese, America, catfishing, China, Cybersecurity, Australian
NCRI, a nonprofit, found cybercriminals used the social apps Instagram, Snapchat and Wizz to find and connect with their marks. And social media platforms should include a distinct category to report sextortion — as Snapchat did in early 2023. Parents and educators should "combat the belief that photos sent on Snapchat disappear, which can create a false sense of security," the NCRI study recommends. The NCRI study also strongly criticized Wizz, concluding: "Sextortion on Wizz is pervasive and dangerous. Apple's App Store and Google Play can also help, the NCRI study suggested, by carefully monitoring complaints about sextortion associated with social media apps, and enforcing their existing policies.
Persons: cybercriminals, Wizz, Paul Raffile, Alex Goldenberg, TikTok, Scribd, sextortion, Snapchat, Goldenberg, screenshotted, General Raúl Torrez, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta, — Kevin Collier, Ben Goggin Organizations: Yahoo, Network, Research, FBI, Yahoo Boys, NBC News, CNBC, NBC, Secret Service, Facebook, YouTube, Meta, gov, National Center for Locations: North America, Australia, West Africa, Michigan, Wizz, New Mexico, U.S
Some X users are complaining the site is overrun with ads pushing crypto and AI "undressing" apps. Social media experts say an advertiser exodus has left X reliant on less reputable buyers. AdvertisementElon Musk's war on advertisers seems to be having some unintended consequences for X. Business InsiderOther suspect advertisements have been spotted on the site, with users also complaining about a surge in ads on their timelines for "undressing" apps. "It also shows the race to the bottom that the X platform has fallen into," he added.
Persons: Elon Musk, , Elon, xqCDa7Ilgm, kevin harrish, Jeff MacDonald, Mekanism, Hamza Mudassir, Musk, Alex Jones, MacDonald, Linda Yaccarino, X, Matt Navarra Organizations: Social, Service, Business, Twitter, Media, Cambridge University, Apple, Disney, The New York Times, Times, IBM, Walmart
Caesars paid around $15 million in ransom to regain access to its systems from the hackers, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal. Some have been collecting evidence leading to the hackers' identities and are assisting law enforcement, according to the five insiders. The sources say that, following the September casino hacks, the FBI's investigation took on new urgency. Mandia didn't respond directly when asked whether Scattered Spider's identities were known to law enforcement. But he did say that there was no excuse for not arresting hackers who operated from the West.
Persons: Bridget Bennett, Michael Sentonas, Sentonas, Alphabet's, James Foster, Foster, cybercriminals, gona, Kevin Mandia, Mandiant, you've, Zeba Siddiqui, Raphael Satter, Christopher Bing, Chris Sanders, Claudia Parsons Organizations: MGM, MGM Resorts, REUTERS, FRANCISCO, U.S . Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, Industry, Reuters, Department of Justice, Caesars, Wall Street, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, ex, Telegram, Thomson Locations: Las Vegas , Nevada, U.S, WASHINGTON, America, Palo, American, Baltimore , Maryland, United States, Newark , New Jersey, sextortion, San Francisco, Washington
Total: 25