(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Never ever give in to online temptations - that is a lesson that some men have learnt the hard way.
Flirting and 'getting naughty' with strangers online has landed many into extortion rackets where they are then forced to pay money to keep their compromising pictures and videos from being uploaded on social media sites for the whole world to see.
Some in Oman too have fallen prey to this form of blackmail. Often extortion rings based out of some Asian Arab and East European countries pursue gullible people and develop a friendship using online chat rooms. In the initial days the chats mostly revolve around regular topics like society friends or politics. As trust deepens the 'women' veer the conversations towards 'nude chats' without the men knowing that they are being recorded. In a few days the men begin receiving threats of an expose.
One such victim admitted that it was his mistake to have behaved inappropriately. He said
'I was fooled by an attractive woman online. Now I am ashamed of facing my family.'
The person developed a 'friendship' with a stranger on Facebook. 'Little was I aware that I was being recorded. And soon I began getting her mails which said that I would be exposed to the whole world if I did not pay her a large sum.'
Initially not knowing what to do he approached Tariq al
Barwani IT expert and Knowledge Oman founder for guidance.
'This is a recent phenomenon in Oman and must be taken seriously. Of course safety is in one's own hands and you cannot blame anyone else. But right now we need to help victims without being judgmental and the same time make others aware' Barwani said. Over the past two months over ten victims have called Barwani for help in taking down their compromising photos or videos.
'Most of them do not know what to do after their pictures or videos get uploaded on YouTube Instagram or Facebook.
I guide them on what exactly they need to do to take down these offensive pictures and save themselves from social disgrace and guilt' Barwani said.
Another person who was blackmailed said he regretted his mistake. 'I now want to rectify it. Tariq helped me in deleting the files on various social media sites. I now want to make others aware of the scam as we often use social media without thinking about our online safety.'
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