With the growth of webcam modeling, sextortion has experienced a boom, as well. What is sextortion?

Put simply, it’s porn blackmail. Criminals send out hundreds of emails claiming they have information on someone doing sexual things on cam and threaten to show their friends and families if they do not pay a ransom. Are you living a secret cam modeling life? Do you watch porn on the internet? Then chances are you may end up receiving one of these threats. So what can you do about it?

The easiest answer is, nothing. 99% of the time, these emails are lies. If you are a webcam model, you should have already prepared for the fact that your friends and family just might find out what you are doing. Your images, videos, and face are going to be plastered all over the internet the moment you download your content. That’s how you make money, right? You share that content as much as possible to try to get seen by as many people as possible in hopes of getting a larger customer base. If you were smart, you would have been keeping as much of your personal life and real information off the internet as possible. So if you get a blackmail email, either ignore it and prepare for the worst, or tell the sender to shove it.

If you are a family man who has been doing a little webcam browsing and you received one of these nasty emails claiming to have you on camera beating off to a pretty girl, my advice is the same. Do nothing. If they didn’t send you a picture or video clip of you doing the dirty, chances are they don’t have it.

• Ask them to prove they have something on you.
• Ask them to send you some evidence. It can be a picture, a video clip, or even ask them to send you a list of people they plan on sending the information to. They may respond by threatening to send it to everyone you know if you don’t pay, but don’t you think that they would want to be taken seriously by giving you a peek at what they have on you? Why would they refuse to show you? I’ll tell you why. Because they have nothing. Delete and move on!

If you do happen to get a REAL blackmailing email, the best thing to do is go to the police.

Beating off to porn or being the hot piece on the other end of the camera is not a crime! Porn is an estimated $100 BILLION industry for a reason. Millions of people are doing it. Yes, it would be embarrassing for your friends and families to see that side of you, but the alternative to just facing the consequences of public humiliation is going to be years of fear, threats, and thousands of dollars in ransom. And there is still no guarantee that these sick bastards aren’t going to share the content anyway.