100 more suspects linked to ‘Sextortion’ cases

POLICE have linked around 100 hundred more suspects in the Philippines in connection with “sextortion” cases like those that resulted in the death of Fife teenager Daniel Perry.

By CHRIS MARSHALL Saturday, 3rd May 2014, 12:41 pm

Daniel Perry died in July last year after falling victim to an alleged "sextortion" attempt. Picture: PA

The 17-year-old died in July last year after falling from the Forth Road Bridge. He had been blackmailed by people he met online.

About 100 more Filipino suspects are linked to online blackmail syndicates that extorted money from victims worldwide after luring them into exposing themselves in front of webcams or engaging in lewd chats, a Philippine police official said Tuesday.

Sign up to our daily newsletter The i newsletter cut through the noise Sign up Thanks for signing up! Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting...

Authorities arrested 58 suspects in Manila and three outlying regions two weeks ago in a crackdown backed by Interpol and police from four countries, including the United States. The suspects were traced through online chats from victims’ computers.

Daniel Perry died in July last year after falling victim to an alleged "sextortion" attempt. Picture: PA

Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa of the police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group said an investigation has linked 100 more suspects to the syndicates, including some who received a share of money extorted from victims. The additional suspects will be arrested and charged if evidence clearly shows their involvement, he said.

“After the initial arrests, many other suspects have been lying low,” Sosa said. “But international collaboration and information-sharing have really helped us to identify and track them.”

The syndicates prey on mostly male victims by employing women with fake Facebook accounts who strike up online chats. The victims are duped into engaging in lewd talk, exposing themselves before a webcam or performing a sexual act, which are secretly recorded and used to blackmail them, Philippine police said.

Wider Internet access, a relatively lower risk of arrest and big financial gains have caused such crimes to flourish in recent years in many countries.

Interpol said it’s difficult to estimate numbers, but there could be “hundreds of thousands” of such victims. The online extortion groups usually ask for $500 from each victim but have demanded up to $15,000, according to Interpol.

Three of the 58 arrested Filipino suspects were believed to have victimized Perry, who jumped off a bridge after being blackmailed by the syndicate, Sosa said.

Police said the “sextortion” syndicates have collected thousands of pounds from hundreds of victims based in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States and the United Kingdom in the last three to four years.