English subtitles for clip: File:Sextortionagent interview.ogg

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Sextortion is what is commonly referred to 

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as individuals who are being victimized

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they’re being extorted;

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it’s what we commonly refer to as extortion, only

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the end-gain for the individuals who are doing the extortion is 

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something that’s related to some sexual activity. Whether it be

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pictures or videos or, 

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but it is generally something that is associated with sex.

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So I’m blackmailing you for something sexual in nature.

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Kids tend to be less cautious

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and more trusting of individuals online.

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They associate many people online as people much like themselves, 

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of around the same age. So

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they're not very fearful of potential dangers.

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A lot of times you have individuals who will befriend children.

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They think they are chatting with other children.

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And oftentimes children are tricked into sending pictures of themselves 

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to somebody else that they believe are maybe similar in age.

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And once these individuals have these pictures, well they want more pictures. 

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That is what they’re using in furtherance of their criminal activity.

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Once they have these pictures, they are then able to say to

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the victim or to the child,

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“I want more,” or, “I want you to do x, y, and z.

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And if you don’t I’m going to take these photographs and I’m going to

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send them to other people in the school. I’ll send them to your family.”

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And oftentimes, the children are embarrassed,

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especially thinking as though they have somehow contributed to their victimization.

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So fearing that they will get in trouble if they report it,

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they will continue with the victimization and send the individuals what they’re requesting.

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What often happens is, the victimization never stops.

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We saw situations where the individuals responsible for this criminal activity

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actually created websites and actually sent hyperlinks to friends

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and to family members, again showing a certain level of

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a sense of dominance over the victim to say,

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“This is what I have over you, and if you don’t continue to do what I say, 

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these are the things that I can do.”

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They are masters at exploiting the vulnerable.

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They would trick people into opening an attachment.

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One of the ways they would often do it was they would send a picture of a girl.

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And she was wearing a bra and panties. And

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she had her hair over her face and you couldn’t see what she looked like.

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And they would say something along the lines of,

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“I saw this picture of you on a website. If it’s not you, just disregard.” 

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Well, what a lot of these victims didn’t realize was there was a 

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Trojan program embedded within the picture. 

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All kids looked at the picture. Kids are just curious by nature.

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And not even realizing that something could be embedded in that picture they looked at it.

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Once Connolly [a sextortist] and Dickerson [another sextortionist] had access to their computer,

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what they would do is a couple things.

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A lot of times they would just sit back and watch.

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And they had the ability to turn on your webcam.

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So they would see these victims dressing and undressing and

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just doing various things. And they would tape that.

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And sometimes they would catch kids doing things or catch kids changing [clothes].

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Sometimes they would show these videos or pictures in furtherance of the exploitation.

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Also, once they had this they had access to buddy lists, so they were able to say,

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“If you don’t take pictures of yourself, or you don’t take these movies of yourself, 

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I see you have an e-mail address for your grandmother.

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Well, I’ll put this little show together for your grandmother, and 

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I’m sure she wouldn’t, you know, be very proud of the way you act.”

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And a lot of these kids would do this.

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Today you have so many more malware

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there’s so much more malware out there, and so many more

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programs that allow people access to your computer,

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you can’t be too cautious any more. One of the things that,

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especially when talking to parents, is

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you need to have this open dialogue with your children.

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You have to talk to your kids about these things.

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You can’t be too careful. You really can’t trust…

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you’ve got to be careful with whom you’re communicating.

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Always be cautious: number-one.

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Number-two is: kids need to be able to talk to parents

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and parents need to be able to talk to kids.

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If you don’t know who something is from, don’t open it.

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Be cautious of certain attachments.

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And, in the end,

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if something were to happen, if you were victimized,

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tell somebody, tell your parents. Tell an adult. Tell a teacher.

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Even if you’re an adult and you’re victimized, don’t be afraid to call law enforcement.

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Dickerson had—he had like 230 gigabytes worth of material.

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And at the time that was huge.

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Connolly had close to a terabyte worth of material.

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And the thing was a lot of these kids are just some folder somewhere.

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It was a folder on a computer.

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No name. No screen name. Just pictures and videos in a folder. 

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And part of what I feel my responsibility is is

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to talk to anybody who’s willing to listen

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because I know where’s so many more victims out here that are wondering, 

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“I wonder what ever happened to those guys?” or, “Do I still need to be afraid?”

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If you know somebody or are in a similar situation,

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or if you’re a parent, talk to your children about this.