Scams and sextortion

Arjun is twenty-three and studying accounting. A woman with a beautiful profile follows him on Instagram. She's funny, she's flirty, and within a day she asks him to move to Snapchat. She sends a revealing photo and asks for one back. He sends it. Ten minutes later, she sends his photo beside a list of his followers. Pay five hundred dollars, or everyone sees it.

Before we start, this lecture is general information, not legal advice. Laws differ by province and state, and they change. For your own situation, talk to a lawyer or a legal clinic. And if any of this is happening to you right now, call or text nine eight eight.

So here's the question. What does Arjun do now, and how could he have spotted it sooner?

First, he's far from alone. In its twenty twenty-five internet crime report, the Federal Bureau of Investigation logged more than seventy-five thousand sextortion reports. By age, the biggest group was people in their twenties. In Canada, Cybertip dot ca found that where the victim's gender was known, eighty-three percent were male, and boys were usually extorted for money.

The slower version is the romance scam. Canadians reported losing over sixty-three million dollars to romance scams in twenty twenty-five. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre lists the signs. Someone you've never met says they love you. They push you to a private app fast. There's always a reason they can't meet or video chat. And some offer to coach you on crypto investing. That one is called pig butchering.

The American Federal Trade Commission says nearly sixty percent of people who lost money to a romance scam said it started on social media, not a dating app. And its rule is simple. Never send money to someone you haven't met in person. Not for a plane ticket, not for an emergency, not for an investment.

Now, her side. Here's the twist. In Arjun's story, there is no her. Those photos almost certainly came from someone else. And real women on apps worry about fakes too. So when a woman asks for a quick video call before meeting, she isn't being difficult. She's doing exactly what you should be doing.

So what does Arjun do? Cybertip, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and the Federal Bureau of Investigation all agree. Stop replying. Don't pay, because paying usually brings more demands. Don't send anything more. Screenshot everything, including the profile and the payment request. Block and report the account. Then report it to police and the Anti-Fraud Centre in Canada, or to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States.

If you're worried an image will spread, StopNCII.org helps adults get images taken down. It makes a digital fingerprint on your own phone, so the picture never leaves it. In Canada, threatening to share an intimate image is now a crime in itself. It is not your fault, and it passes. If it gets heavy, call or text nine eight eight.

Let's change one fact. Before sending anything, Arjun runs her photos through a reverse image search and asks for a short live video call. She always has a reason she can't. That's your answer. A real person who likes you can manage a minute on camera.

The mistake guys make is paying, out of panic and shame, hoping it ends. The scammer is counting on you being too embarrassed to tell anyone. Tell someone anyway.

Here's the rule, in one breath. Never send money or intimate pictures to someone you haven't met in person, and if someone threatens you, stop, don't pay, save everything, report it, and tell someone.

This week, set your accounts so strangers can't see who follows you, and pick the one friend you'd call if this ever happened. Tell them now. Next time, we start the last module, what actually makes relationships work.