{"id":19453,"date":"2022-06-28T04:10:13","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T12:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2022\/06\/28\/news-13186\/"},"modified":"2022-06-28T04:10:13","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T12:10:13","slug":"news-13186","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2022\/06\/28\/news-13186\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBTQ+ community targeted by extortionists who threaten to publish nudes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Credit to Author: Malwarebytes Labs| Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2022 11:15:24 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has <a href=\"https:\/\/consumer.ftc.gov\/consumer-alerts\/2022\/06\/spot-extortion-scams-lgbtq-dating-apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">warned<\/a> the LGBTQ+ community about extortionists posing as potential romantic partners on Grindr and Feeld.<\/p>\n<p>The scammers send their targets explicit photos and then ask for them to reciprocate. If they do, targets are then blackmailed into paying a ransom, usually in the form of gift cards, or risk having these photos leaked to family, friends, and employers.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s not all, the scammers are also looking to out people, unless they pay a ransom. According to the FTC:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>&#8220;Other scammers threaten people who are \u201ccloseted\u201d or not yet fully \u201cout\u201d as LGBTQ+. They may pressure you to pay up or be outed, claiming they\u2019ll \u201cruin your life\u201d by exposing explicit photos or conversations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>How to protect yourself from extortionists<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Always check who you&#8217;re talking to. <\/strong>Do is a reverse image search of their profile photo to see what shows up. If the name doesn&#8217;t match up with the face, end communications promptly, and report the account to the dating app\/site.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Be careful about sending compromising images of yourself to someone.<\/strong> Trust your gut. Realize that extortionists are after such photos to use them as bargaining chips.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Never send your personal information.<\/strong> This includes email addresses, social media profiles, and smartphone numbers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Avoid opening attachments or clicking links. <\/strong>They may contain malware designed to hijack devices or steal your information.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Disable your webcam and electronic devices when not in use.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Never pay the ransom.<\/strong> Scammers are known for promising one thing and doing the other. Remember that if you pay them, there&#8217;s no guarantee they&#8217;ll keep their word.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Report it to the FBI and FTC.<\/strong> Don&#8217;t wait to be in deep with the scammer. Once you smell fraud, cease communications immediately and report.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/help.grindr.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/1500009328241-Scam-awareness-guide#h_01F6G0D8ZZNYNB94D5GT3NDXSP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Grindr<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/support.feeld.co\/en\/articles\/5478289-what-do-i-do-if-someone-asks-me-to-continue-the-conversation-in-a-different-app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Feeld<\/a> also have helpful guides for their users.<\/p>\n<p>Stay safe!<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/social-engineering\/2022\/06\/lgbtq-community-targeted-by-extortionists-who-threaten-to-publish-nudes\/\">LGBTQ+ community targeted by extortionists who threaten to publish nudes<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\">Malwarebytes Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/social-engineering\/2022\/06\/lgbtq-community-targeted-by-extortionists-who-threaten-to-publish-nudes\/\" target=\"bwo\" >https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/feed\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Credit to Author: Malwarebytes Labs| Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2022 11:15:24 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The FTC has issued a warning to the LGBTQ+ community about extortionists posing as potential romantic partners on Grindr and Feeld.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/social-engineering\/2022\/06\/lgbtq-community-targeted-by-extortionists-who-threaten-to-publish-nudes\/\">LGBTQ+ community targeted by extortionists who threaten to publish nudes<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\">Malwarebytes Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[10488,10378],"tags":[26703,7960,6627,25474,10664,26725,10665,4381,26726,26727,1966,26728,22873,10510],"class_list":["post-19453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malwarebytes","category-security","tag-cryptocurrency-scam","tag-dating-apps","tag-fbi","tag-federal-bureau-of-investigations","tag-federal-trade-commission","tag-feeld","tag-ftc","tag-grindr","tag-impersonators","tag-investment-scam","tag-lgbtq","tag-lgbtq-extortion","tag-romance-scam","tag-social-engineering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}