Blackmail on VK: what to do if you are blackmailing with photos on the Internet

The World Wide Web has long become part of the habitual way of life of a modern person. Along with new technological capabilities of users, new methods of crime have appeared that affect the privacy of those who cannot imagine themselves without a computer or tablet. Many of us have long followed the habit of “sharing” personal photos with our friends, colleagues, and spouses. Sometimes actively capturing yourself brings problems associated with extortion, coercion to perform some action in exchange for non-distribution of candid photographs. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the ransomware often “works” under a fictitious name and nothing is known about it. What to do if you are blackmailed on the Internet?

Types of blackmail on VKontakte

The popular social network is one of the favorite places of a wide variety of scammers and blackmailers. Today we will look at the three most popular ways to ruin the life of an ordinary person:

Hacking of a personal page. In this case, the attacker gains access to all your information - correspondence, contact list, videos and photographs, which he uses to achieve his goal. The situation is simple! You go to your profile and see a message from an unknown user who informs you that intimate photos have been found on your page. To prevent them from getting to your entire friends list, you must transfer a certain amount of money to your web wallet. If you try to block the ransomware, file a complaint with the admins, or delete your profile, the mailing will occur automatically. The victim of such extortionists is often an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend who at one time managed to star in a “home video” or be photographed naked. The blackmailer’s condition can be not only money, but also other options - breaking up with a new man, becoming a couple again, etc. By the way, a man most often plays the role of a swindler.
Online dating. The victim literally falls into the hands of the swindler! Having met a respectable man or a pretty lady online, you begin to have intimate conversations with the exchange of half-naked pictures of you. The payback for this may be blackmail in contact with the sending of correspondence or candid photos.
Child molestation charges. Mostly men fall into this trap. The following messages may appear on their vk pages: “You just sent me a photo of your genitals. I am 12 years old. I will file a complaint with the police about child molestation if you do not transfer 10 thousand rubles to my account.” Following this SMS, the man is also sent “material” evidence in the form of screenshots of correspondence.

You need to do two things (necessarily both the first and second):

Report all the circumstances and a link to the blackmailer’s page to the VK support service (the Write to support button). To find out the link to the page, see here. All methods of contacting VK support are here.
File a police report or consult with a lawyer first.
Citizens of the Russian Federation can submit an application online on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

In addition, if your VKontakte page is hacked, you need to warn your friends about this and restore access to it - instructions here.

Methods of blackmail on the Internet

A new move by scammers in 2022 was network manipulation on the popular Russian platform Vkontakte. The algorithm of their actions: fake accounts start threatening that all your personal data will be leaked onto the Internet if certain conditions are not met. Of course, they relate to monetary “compensation”.

Manipulation options:

VKontakte page was hacked. Currently, there are entire databases with ready-made logins and passwords for hacking VK pages. Having received the data, the attacker gains access to any correspondence;
The person himself sends some information in the form of personal photographs (intentionally or not) to the blackmailer, who subsequently intends to use them for his own benefit;

A common situation: a girl, while corresponding with her boyfriend, sent “incriminating evidence” about herself (intimate photographs, videos, explicit messages, etc.). When breaking up, the guy, wanting revenge, promises to publish this information if the conditions are not met (return the old relationship, break off the new one, send money, etc.).

They faked an obscene photo allegedly with your participation. Perhaps the incriminating evidence against you does not exist at all, but a frightened person may believe in it.

What to do if you are blackmailed for money on VK

First, let's talk about the most common type of extortion and what to do if you are blackmailed for money.

You must understand that any attempt by an attacker to take your money in exchange for the fact that he will not distribute inconvenient photos or under any other pretext may be punishable by law.

Yes, it would seem that this is a virtual world, what kind of responsibility can there be? However, it is not. Save all messages, take pictures of them, make copies. And if even with the threat that you will contact the police, the attacker does not lag behind, put your words into practice.

If you can prove to law enforcement agencies that you are being extorted, they will definitely help you. If you wrote that you went to the police and received threats to life or health, then these are already serious violations, for which you can even go to places not so remote.

Let's look at some examples:

Your page was hacked and they asked for money from your VKontakte friends. Which of them thought that you really needed money and transferred a certain amount to the scammers. And now he demands your money back and threatens to write to the police. What to do in such a situation?

Action plan:

We write to VK technical support with a request to record that your page was actually hacked and asked for money. We explain the situation to them; they have encountered this many times before and know what to do.
The following we write to the person that he has become a victim of scammers and you have nothing to do with it and he has the right to contact the police, but this will not give any results since you are not to blame.
If your interlocutor is determined to go to the police, do not dissuade him or offer him money. On the contrary, say that you are ready to give an explanation and help him get his money back.

As practice shows, in 95% of cases, this is where it all ends and no one goes anywhere, it just leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. If this is your close relative or friend, invite him to go to a cafe or bar at your expense, this will smooth out and relieve tension.

If your interlocutor went to the police, request a statement from VK support stating that you were hacked, come for questioning when they call you, explain to the investigator that you have nothing to do with it, that you have already asked support for confirmation that it was not you, etc. Such cases usually hang like a dead weight, but 1 out of 100 of them are investigated and the fraudster is imprisoned. The main thing is not to be afraid and tell the truth; there is nothing to show you, because the investigator needs to prove that you committed fraudulent actions, but he will not be able to do this.

What to do if you are blackmailed on VKontakte with photos or videos

Often, attackers find compromising materials and try to influence a person with them. What to do if you are blackmailed on VKontakte with photos or videos.

First, let’s look at where your personal photos could come from:

Your page was hacked
Via a third party site
Your computer or laptop has been hacked

If an information leak occurred after a personal page was hacked, you must contact VK support as soon as possible.

They will freeze your page and the attacker will not be able to see the information.

If he has already saved the materials to a storage device or computer, then the task becomes more complicated.

You will have to contact the police and prove that the materials used for blackmail were not in the public domain, that your page was hacked. However, if your social network was hacked through authorization on a third-party site, then the problems will only increase.

In fact, this is your negligence, because no one forced you to provide your data. Therefore, it will be more difficult to prove that you are right, but it is quite possible.

A completely logical question arises: how to delete VK photos used to blackmail people.

At first glance, everything is simple: go to your page, click delete. But, most likely, the attackers created a copy of themselves and it’s almost impossible to get to it.

But a photo is a photo, you can easily refer to Photoshop and no one will prove that it is you who is depicted in it.

Things are more complicated with video. “What to do if someone blackmails me on VK with my videos.” - this is a question that law enforcement officers are hearing more and more often.

The answer is always almost the same: be more careful when posting your materials online. And it is true.

Often, users of social networks find themselves in funny situations due to their inattention and negligence. Nobody says that you need to block all your pages, delete photos and not communicate with anyone. No, just take it more seriously.

Any entry posted may be used against you. Be it a video where you speak unflatteringly about something or a photo for which you are ashamed. If it got on the Internet thanks to you, it’s only your problem and there’s nothing you can do about it.

The law is on your side only if the materials were published against your will. Then contact law enforcement agencies and demand your protection, because that is their job.

Let's look at an example. In this example, we will look at several types of blackmail at once: when they blackmail with photos or intimate videos, they blackmail with child molestation.

In this case, let’s imagine that a girl or guy writes to you and offers to get acquainted, after several days or weeks, you are offered virtual or exchange of intimate photos or videos. And as you already guessed, they begin to blackmail you and say that they will send all these photos or videos to all the people on your friends list, what to do in such a situation:

Try to convince the attacker that you have no money
Explain to the scammer that you will contact the police and he will be imprisoned for blackmail and that this is a crime under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and if he sends photos and videos, then you will demand moral compensation from him in the amount of, for example, 3,000,000 rubles. Believe me, as a rule, this scares off 90% of scammers and they disappear
If this does not help, we print out the dialogue where you can see the text and the amount that they are extorting from you, go to a lawyer and certify the screenshots, then certify the screenshots where you can see the id of the page from which you are being blackmailed. We go to the police, write a statement and attach certified documents. Next, we take a photo of the whole process and take a photo of the ticket that the police will give you and send it to the extortionists.

Why certify screenshots? This will be the evidence base for the fact of extortion; without this, you will simply be refused to initiate a criminal case.

What to do if I blackmail you for reposts or memes

We delete the material and add it to the emergency situation who writes. If they are persistent, we say that we will contact the police, and if this does not help, then we certify the screenshots of the extortion and go to the police, send a photo of the tear-off coupon, and forget about the problem.

Remember the most important thing, don’t be fooled by scammers, they can only scare you in words, but if you scare them with the police and not just scare them, but actually go and write a statement and send a photo of it to the scammers, then they will immediately fall behind, even if they cannot solve your case , then in 100% of cases the ransomware disappears without doing what they promised. And remember only the police will help you!

Warning friends

By telling your friends, acquaintances and relatives about what happened, a person will deprive the attacker of leverage. Suffice it to say that the criminals fabricated incriminating evidence and began to extort money. If the blackmailer subsequently decides to spread damaging information, then the victim's acquaintances will know about its falsity. This way a person can save both money and reputation. In addition, scammers usually do not waste their time on intractable citizens, quickly switching to other victims.

Most often, scammers scare users by distributing their intimate photos. But where does the attacker get the photographs? If the blackmailer is an experienced hacker, then he can pull out pictures from Google Photos or ICloud, hack into a mailbox, a social network account or a profile in a messenger. In addition, photos can be intercepted through an unprotected Wi-Fi point, or you can simply infect the victim’s computer with viruses. There are many ways, and each of them can work.

Most hackers do not specifically target their victims. They collect logins and passwords in batches, intercept files transmitted over an unsecured connection, and only then decide what benefit can be derived from the information received.

Experienced hackers often direct their attacks at rich and famous citizens. And the latter are ready to pay tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars for the safety of information, unless, of course, the leak was planned for PR purposes.

Another question: does the blackmailer actually have photographs? He may well be bluffing. To make sure of this, you should request evidence from the blackmailer.

Some hackers do not demand ransom for intimate photos of their victims. They simply post materials on anonymous forums or thematic public pages for fun. In this case, it will not be possible to influence the attacker.

If a hacker has taken advantage of a victim and intends to blackmail her, then he will spend time checking her pages on social networks. This way, the attacker will receive information about the person’s parents and relatives, whether he is in a relationship, where he works and who he is friends with. During this analysis, experienced scammers determine how much money can be extorted from a citizen for silence. Some ransomware, on the contrary, send messages to 10-15 different victims, hoping that at least one of them will pay. At the same time, the attacker does not remember a single person and will not punish the person if he receives a refusal, since he is targeting mass mailing.

What to do if you are blackmailed in contact

There are three ways to solve the problem. When faced with such a difficult situation, you can take three different paths. Let's look at each of them.

Contacting the police

This is the most reliable method of fighting ransomware, recommended by leading experts. You will not be able to track whether photos were destroyed or copies of video files were made, so you will never have complete confidence that extortion will not happen again.

The best solution is to contact the police. To do this, you need to write a statement like this:

To the head of police department No.____district of _______

Petrova O.A.,

residing at _______ (specify)

Tel._______________ (specify)

Statement

I ask that an unknown person under the nickname “Maxim” be brought to criminal responsibility, who, under the threat of distributing intimate photographs to my friends, demands the transfer of 10 thousand rubles to a QIWI wallet on September 30, 2016, before 18.00. A message of this nature was delivered to me on September 28, 2016 at 18.00 on the page of the social network VKontakte. The actions of an unknown person violate my rights regarding confidentiality of correspondence. They can also cause significant harm to me, humiliate my dignity and honor. On criminal liability for knowingly false denunciation in accordance with Art. 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation warned.

I am attaching to the application: screenshots of the VKontakte social page, screenshots of messages from an unknown person.

Petrov O.A. Date________ Signature__________

This statement must be taken to the police department located at your place of residence.

Remember, any additional information you receive after drawing up the application (receipt of new threats, distribution of information compromising you, increase in the required amount, etc.) will help law enforcement agencies quickly determine the whereabouts of the blackmailer.

Also read: Fraud in the insurance industry under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

In most cases, criminals use special programs that prevent the IP address from being determined. In this case, only the operational work of an employee of Department “K” (involved in the investigation of crimes in the field of computer information), who managed to track the route of sending messages, will help to expose the blackmailer.

When you turn to the police for help, be prepared for a strong psychological “attack.” You will have to talk about your personal life both during the investigation and in the courtroom. Be prepared to study in detail all the information (photos or videos) that became the subject of blackmail.

The investigator will find out where they were taken from, how the extortionist managed to gain access to them (unauthorized or you sent them to him yourself), whether you know this person - a standard procedure, without which not a single inquiry in the case can be completed.

Most likely, the materials with which you are being blackmailed will be attached to the doula as material evidence and will become known to the public (lawyer, state prosecutor, judge, secretary, etc.).

It is for this reason that many victims try to solve the problem on their own, without washing their dirty linen in public. In 60% of cases, such a decision bears fruit.

Ignoring the threat

According to statistics, in 99% of cases, the extortionist will not publish materials if the victim completely ignores any contact with him from the moment signs of blackmail are detected.

Remove yourself from all social networks. Simply deleting photos will not help - an experienced hacker will be able to track you.
You can also avoid visiting the page for a very long time. Special invisible programs will help you stay informed and control this situation.
Try to erase as much as possible from the World Wide Web all your data (telephone numbers, addresses, biographical information, etc.).
Do not contact the blackmailer, do not respond to any of his messages - they should remain unread. If a criminal sees the slightest sign of your visiting vk.com, he will immediately bring his threats into reality.

Perhaps after some time the criminal will forget about you. Then you can create a new page for yourself.

Otherwise, you will only have to gain strength and get through that difficult period when your relatives and friends will begin to vigorously condemn your intimate life. But you will save a considerable amount of money and stop being afraid.

Claim lack of money

What to do when blackmailed on VKontakte to avoid publicity and not pay anything? Convince the swindler of your insolvency - make it immediately clear that you do not have this amount and there is also nowhere to get it.

No matter what they tell you, no matter how they threaten you, stand your ground clearly. Once the criminal realizes that he has nothing to take from you, he will either reduce the amount or leave you alone.

Your main task is not to be nervous, not to make trouble, but to take everything philosophically and under no circumstances change your own position. As a last resort, demand an increase in time - during this time you will decide what to do next.

Know that all intimidation is aimed only at making you quickly figure out where to find money. The swindler will not put them into action, because then he will lose his potential earnings.

Of course, there is a small risk that the extortionist, getting angry, will publish incriminating evidence. But this entails another article of the Criminal Code.

Don't negotiate with scammers

If a person has exposed his email somewhere, then he should expect not only harmless spam, but also possible letters from scammers. Modern scammers are ready to pretend to be anyone just to scam their victims out of money. They can write to a person on behalf of government agencies, pretend to be employers, representatives of lotteries, etc. But in any of these situations, the purpose of the message will be the same: to steal money or personal data of a citizen.

Also, the letter can be impersonal - the sender is unknown and it is not really clear what he wants. Such messages should be treated with suspicion, just like those sent on behalf of a foreigner or a person with a rare name. The same applies to letters whose writer does not address the recipient by name, but calls him “friend,” “dear friend,” “member,” etc. Such messages should be left unanswered. And you definitely shouldn’t download attachments from these emails - simple curiosity in this case can lead to your computer being infected with a virus, and the loss of personal data and money.

You should also be suspicious of a letter from a friend, acquaintance or relative if its text is not similar to your usual correspondence. Especially if a person writes that he is in trouble and asks for money or offers to follow a link and watch something interesting.

Sometimes scammers act from afar, “testing the waters” and ingratiating themselves with the victim. But there are times when in the very first letter threats begin to fall on a person. And in this case, you should also not enter into dialogue with the blackmailer. And it doesn’t matter what incriminating evidence he has: photographs, screenshots of correspondence or scans of documents. Do not click on links or download documents to your computer. We simply send the letter to spam and safely forget about it.

Is it possible to identify the blackmailer?

Think about it: what might VKontakte know about a blackmailer? Last name, first name, patronymic, home address, place of work? Of course not. Phone number? IP address? What would such information tell you? Fraudsters use disposable phone numbers; you are unlikely to be able to reach them. By IP address you only recognize the Internet provider and the city. Let's say it's 5 thousand kilometers from you. And what?

Next: imagine that VK gives you some information about the blackmailer, you find him and, for the purpose of revenge, commit some crime. Does VK want to become an accomplice of another criminal? But let's say you want to get information about the blackmailer and go to the police with it. So go to the police, as indicated at the beginning. When necessary, the police themselves will receive the necessary information from the VK administration.

Definition of the criminal act of extortion

Article 163 (Part 1) of the Russian Criminal Code states that extortion is called:

requesting to transfer someone else's property values or transfer the right to them;
a promise to disseminate knowingly false/true information that disgraces the victim, his relatives, loved ones or harms their rights.

It is necessary to distinguish between the similar extortion, slander and blackmail, since in criminal law each of them is understood as:

extortion is when the person committing it promises or distributes knowingly false or true information that disgraces the victim, loved ones or relatives with a demand to transfer property values to him or with the intention of causing damage to her;
slander is when a person disseminates erroneous, deliberately false information that discredits the honor and business reputation of a person;
Blackmail is when a person tries to take possession of the victim’s property values or rights to it.

Harassment allegations

It is advisable to immediately write a statement to law enforcement agencies so as not to end up on the other side - in the dock. Harassment charges if not filed in a timely manner will carry serious criminal penalties as they amount to serious crimes.

Conducting VKontakte negotiations with minors on your own can be quite dangerous. Any unnecessary word can easily turn against you. But even in this case, it is strongly recommended not to contact online organizations that are ready to solve the problem for you for a lesser amount. It is better to find certified lawyers.

What liability will the extortionist bear?

Regarding extortion, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for an article for the distribution of personal photographs of an intimate nature - No. 163 “Extortion”. In case of encroachment on someone else's property, the attacker may be held accountable:

restrictions or imprisonment for up to 4 years (fine in the amount of 80 thousand rubles);
forced labor - no more than 4 years (with possible restriction of freedom);
arrest - no more than six months;

In case of a group act, the time limits may be increased:

arrest for up to 7 years (if the required amount exceeded 25 thousand rubles);
imprisonment for up to 15 years (for extortion over 1 million rubles).

Also, Article 137 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation states: when blackmailing and sending compromising videos, the extortionist can be taken under arrest for up to 2 years or a fine of 25,000 RUR.

Under Article 138 for hacking correspondence when a blackmailer is caught, the following may be imposed:

Correctional work – no more than 1 year;
Fine up to RUB 80,000 or six months’ income.

How to avoid VKontakte scammers

Basically, the victims of scammers are those who send obscene materials to strangers as part of communication (in particular, through online dating). Don't do anything provocative online.

If you do not want to get into a similar situation or want to avoid its occurrence again, take measures that will make scammers “unarmed”:

Don't trust strangers on social media. networks. Don’t naively assume that everyone is interested in communication. Intimate correspondence and chats may soon turn against you. Simple online dating will turn into accusations of harassment;
Limit access to your profile. Close your account through settings so that photos are visible only to friends;
Do not add dubious pages as friends. Fake pages can write to you not only for communication, advertising their own products, but also to obtain compromising evidence;
Update your login settings once a month. Try to choose complex password combinations with a combination of numbers, symbols, uppercase and capital letters;
Contact support if your VKontakte profile has been hacked.

Also read: Liability for insurance fraud under Art. 159 h 5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Follow all the points, then online activity will not harm your personal space. Even if some extortionist appears demanding payment for blackmail, you can be sure that the information is fake. Either the person simply wants to mislead you for his own benefit, or he has falsified the materials.

Complaint to the bank

Online scammers avoid meeting their victims in person to avoid revealing their identity. Therefore, the scammer indicates in the letter the account details for transferring funds. The most careful blackmailers create wallets in electronic payment systems such as Qiwi, since in this case it is almost impossible to track the recipient.

Have a question for a lawyer? Ask now, call and get a free consultation from leading lawyers in your city. We will answer your questions quickly and try to help with your specific case.

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More careless scammers may give the victim their bank card numbers. And in this case, you can complain to the bank so that the account is blocked.

It should be understood that scammers rarely issue cards in their own name. Most often they buy them for next to nothing from students or retirees. And if in such a situation the victim reports fraud to the police, then law enforcement will not find the real criminal, but a stranger who will tell him that his card was stolen by unknown people. This scheme has been working for several years, and therefore one should not count on the fact that the blackmailer will be able to be put behind bars.

Criminal liability for online extortion

Blackmail with photographs, videos and correspondence of an intimate nature is a criminal offense.
It falls under Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Extortion”. The act under this article entails punishment in the form of:

restrictions of freedom for up to 4 years;
forced labor for up to 4 years with or without restriction of freedom for up to 2 years;
arrest for up to 6 months;
imprisonment for up to 4 years with a fine of 80 thousand rubles;
arrest for up to 7 years (if the criminals acted as part of a group and extorted more than 25 thousand rubles);
imprisonment for 15 years (organized group + extortion of more than 1 million rubles);
deprivation of the right to carry out certain types of activities or work in a specific position for a period of up to 36 months.

In addition, for blackmailing VKontakte with sending compromising video photographs of the criminal, he will be punished in accordance with Article 137 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Violation of privacy” in the form of arrest for up to two years or a fine in the amount of 25 thousand rubles.

Actions of attackers to hack correspondence on a social network are classified separately. Responsibility for them is provided for in Article 138 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and is punishable by a fine of up to 80 thousand rubles or community service.

Contacting the police

Even if it seems that the extortionist has carefully covered all his tracks, his crime should be reported to law enforcement. This is your civic duty, because it is quite possible that in this way further crimes will be prevented. Internet scammers don't stop until they get caught. Therefore, the more people complain about the actions of the criminal, the better.

To report a crime, you don’t have to go to the police station. It is enough to contact law enforcement officers by phone and tell about what happened. The police officer on duty will record the statement from the applicant.

You can also go to the nearest duty station. And it doesn’t matter where the victim is registered or lives - he can contact any department. The application is accepted by an employee located behind a glass window with the inscription “Duty Department”. He is obliged to give the applicant a form with a pen. In most departments, some of the details are already printed on the forms, so the applicant will only need to enter the missing data.

It is important to include the following information in your application:

What happened. We write about the fact of fraud briefly but succinctly. It is advisable to avoid unnecessary details that are indirectly related to the matter.
When the crime occurred and under what circumstances.
Are there any witnesses to what happened? If yes, then you need to indicate their full name, place of residence and contact information. During the investigation, law enforcement will want to talk to eyewitnesses to determine key points in the case.
Who is guilty. In the case of online extortion, the victim is unlikely to know the identity of the criminal. However, it is necessary to provide law enforcement officers with all the information that the victim has. This could be the scammer’s email address, his page on social networks, his bank card number or electronic wallet details.
Applicant's requirements. You should ask that the attacker be held accountable for extortion. Requirements must be stated specifically.

Typically, the application form will provide guidance on what information to provide. Often the victim does not have any information about what happened. For example, a person may not know who the perpetrator of a crime is. In such a case, he must indicate in the statement that the identity of the offender is unknown.

It should be understood that a citizen is not obliged to independently search for a criminal. This is the job of law enforcement officers. If, after reading the application, the police have questions, they will contact the applicant to clarify the details. Therefore, the victim must indicate his data in the document. Without your full name and address, the application will be considered anonymous, and therefore it will simply not be considered.

To contact the police, it is not necessary to make a statement - the victim can apply orally. Then the duty officer will draw up a report based on the victim’s words. After this, the citizen will have to familiarize himself with the contents of this document and sign it.

How to avoid becoming a victim of online extortion

None of you are safe from hacking of pages on the Internet or encountering an extortionist. But by following some recommendations, you will reduce the danger:

Make your profile private.
Don't add people you don't know as friends.
Change the settings so that a stranger will not be able to write to you.
Change your password periodically, choosing a fairly complex combination of various letters and numbers.
Never send intimate photos to anyone - neither those who are friends, nor those with whom you are unfamiliar (even if the person you are communicating with sent such a photo first).
Do not conduct online correspondence on the topic of intimacy.
Don't take part in video chats with strangers.
If your vk profile has been hacked, be sure to notify technical support.

The online world is full of dangers and adventures. Be more attentive to new acquaintances, question every word of your interlocutor and learn to keep your thoughts, emotions and feelings within the limits of what is permitted.

How to deal with ransomware

Summarizing all of the above, let's consider how to behave with Internet blackmailers:

You should not respond to letters. Particularly impressionable people should not even read such messages. When you see that a letter was sent by an unknown person, it is better to ignore it and send it to spam. The same should be done with messages about winnings at a casino, requests to transfer money, etc.
Do not perform any actions imposed by the attacker. This applies to requests to follow a link or download a file to your computer. Even if the link leads to a seemingly familiar site, it could very well turn out to be a phishing site. Such resources were created with the aim of deceiving gullible citizens. They intercept bank card numbers, passing them on to criminals.
Under no circumstances should you pay a scammer. Getting money is the only goal of a swindler. And he, like no one else, knows that there is never too much money. Recently, people have become more literate, and gullible citizens are becoming less and less common. Therefore, attackers are unlikely to lag behind the person who pays them money. Therefore, one extortion will be followed by a second, the second by a third, and so on.
You should not try to punish a cheater. The only way to bring an attacker to justice is to contact law enforcement. Therefore, you should not track down the extortionist, try to hack his page on social networks, or arrange personal meetings with him. Most likely, the scammer will refuse to meet with the victim, because in this case he will have to reveal his identity. If he agrees, then the matter is unclean. Perhaps he will not be alone and will try to rob the victim.

Additional questions

How to prove the threat of blackmail

In order to prove the fact of the threat, try to record a phone call, videotape the conversation, or print out the correspondence. Witnesses are also very important for the investigation.

If all this evidence is available in total, or at least some, consider that your blackmailer has already been punished.

Is it possible to prevent a person from writing to my friends?

Unfortunately no. Because even if it were possible, you already realized that he could create many pages or find other ways to connect with people.

Write on your page that personal information about you has reached criminals and they can distribute it. You need to do this so that your friends are prepared and so that it does not shock them - after all, the criminal can send out incriminating evidence at any moment. When you make an entry on a page, there is a lock next to the Send button - it allows you to make an entry only for friends.

Will it help me if I delete all my friends?

No, it won't help. The blackmailer saved links to all your friends in advance.

Will it help me if I delete my page?

No, it won't help. It will not change anything. Everything you sent to the blackmailer will not be deleted anywhere, and he already knows how to contact your friends. Deleting a page will only create problems for you - you will lose all correspondence, photos, friends, subscriptions. Later you will want to restore the page, but not everyone succeeds.

Next time, you'll be smarter and won't send personal information, photos or videos to strangers.

If you restore access to the hacked page, this will help

Most likely, the blackmailer has already copied personal information somewhere if he gained access to your page. For example, I saved it on my computer. Of course, you need to restore access to the hacked page, but this is unlikely to stop the blackmailer if he already has something to blackmail you with.

What happens if you pay and don’t go anywhere?

Having given the money once, you don’t need to think that it’s all over for you. There are known cases where blackmail and extortion on VKontakte continued for many years.

Periodically appearing on the network, the attacker demands more and more transfers for his silence. And if you don’t react now, he will definitely carry out his intentions - just to punish you for disobedience.

What to do if you are accused of sexual harassment on VKontakte

If you are accused of sending intimate photos or videos to a minor, immediately file a police report.

You are unlikely to be able to cope with blackmail on VKontakte for sending obscene materials on your own, since charges of this kind entail criminal liability for a serious crime.

Remember, there is a huge difference in negotiations with an adult and a “minor” blackmailer. Here, every word you say can work against you.

Under no circumstances contact the Internet Police or other similar organizations that offer to solve the problem for a smaller amount of money. There are no such units in law enforcement agencies!

You are faced with either the same ransomware, “working” from different pages, or fake sites profiting from random victims.

It is important to contact law enforcement. Why?

The person who blackmails or threatens you uses VK only as a means of communication. The VK administration will not understand your relationship. When you have become a victim of deception, you must contact the police in case of threats or extortion. If you were threatened by phone or letter, would you contact the phone company or the post office?

Let's say you report an attacker's page. The maximum that the VK administration can do is block it. Then this person will find another way to contact you or your friends. For example, he will take another SIM card and register a new page from which he will write and threaten you again. Remember how you yourself registered on VKontakte - was it difficult? Most likely, a person already has several pages created for different numbers. There is also Skype, Odnoklassniki, Facebook and other methods of communication. He will find your friends and loved ones everywhere.

And even if compromising materials (photos, videos) are deleted from VK, this will not help - after all, the blackmailer has foreseen this and has already saved them on his computer. This means it will download them again.

Is it worth removing compromising materials from sent VKontakte messages? Within 24 hours, sent messages can be deleted, but the attacker probably knows this and has already saved everything that you sent him somewhere. If it’s just a correspondence, then he could forward it to himself (or his other account), and you won’t delete it, but he can send it to other people. In addition, messages may be needed as evidence when contacting law enforcement agencies.

If you contact law enforcement agencies, then when necessary, they themselves will make an official request to the VK administration in order to obtain the necessary information about the blackmailer. You yourself will not receive such information, no matter how you ask, because VK never gives out information about its users to other users, but cooperates with government agencies to help fight crime. And arbitrariness is prohibited by law. If you try to find an extortionist for the purpose of meeting, then you may become the criminal, not him.

Only competent authorities can catch the extortionist and confiscate from him the materials with which he blackmails you. And only they can punish him according to the law. Contact the police immediately (or better yet, consult a lawyer first).

Look at what is written in the VKontakte help system in case of blackmail - it’s the same there.

Did you think that the person whose photos are posted on the page is the one with whom you corresponded? You can't be so gullible. Usually this is not that attractive girl at all (and most likely not a girl). Is it difficult for an attacker to create a page with someone else’s photos taken from the Internet?

For example, photos of this girl appeared on the Internet at least in 2008, but are still actively used by scammers to create fake pages:

We have instructions that will help you find a person’s photo on the Internet and check whether the page is fake or not - How to find a person by photo.

Sometimes it happens that the blackmailer is your former loved one (jealous boyfriend, girlfriend, ex-husband or wife). Having taken possession of your personal information or correspondence, he wants to distribute it.

In this case, warn the person that the court will be 100% on your side. The person will have a criminal record under Article 137 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Violation of privacy.” He may be sentenced not only to pay compensation for moral damage, but also to compulsory labor or imprisonment for up to two years. If you decide to go this route, contact a lawyer first.