Online Threats and Blackmail Crime

With the increase in communication tools and the widespread use of the internet, the number of threats and blackmail crimes occurring over the internet has increased. Many people become victims of blackmail by recording photos, videos, private correspondence, video conversations and their disclosure through social networks on the Internet. This situation, which can happen to anyone who uses the internet and social media, is defined as a crime within the scope of blackmail crime and threat crime in the Turkish penal code. It would be more accurate to talk about the elements of the crime and its punishment before the grievances experienced through blackmail over the internet.

Threat (TCK art.106) and blackmail (TCK art.107) are similar and sometimes confused crimes. In both types of crime, the person is intimidated and threatened. While threatening crime is a crime committed to intimidate the victim by saying that she will attack her body or sexual immunity, property, in blackmail crime there is an intent to gain unfair advantage or force someone to do or not to do it. Another difference is that there is a risk of revealing or denying the honor or dignity of the person in the crime of blackmail. Therefore, blackmail crime emerges as a special dimension of threat crime.

Penalty for Threats and Blackmail Crime on the Internet

First of all, threats and blackmail are crimes, no concessions should be made to threats and blackmail no matter where or how, and professional support should be sought against these people. Otherwise, the concessions and time given, other problems will arise.

In the Turkish Penal Code, the penalty for the simple threat offense is imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years, and if the threat is aimed at assets, it is up to 6 months in prison or a judicial fine. Investigation of threat crime is subject to complaint. The penalty for the blackmail crime is regulated as “imprisonment from one year to three years and a judicial fine of up to five thousand days” and no complaint has been sought for the investigation of this crime.

Video Blackmail over the Internet

With the development of information technologies, one of the most common crimes we encounter is what we call video blackmail. In chat programs on social media, nude or inappropriate photos and videos of people are recorded during video calls, and then blackmail is made by demanding money or making other inappropriate demands with the threat that these images will be disclosed over the internet.

Video blackmail and video chatting are developing like many crimes over the internet with the uncontrolled development of communication technologies and the spread of the internet. As it is known, most blackmail crimes are committed on the internet through social networks on sites and platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and Instagram. Blackmail, on the other hand, usually starts with the blackmail organizations obtaining the victim’s personal information without permission and threatens to disseminate this information and images on the internet in order to obtain financial benefit from the victim. In some cases, an unavoidable spread may also occur. This is proportional to the social status, economic status and knowledge of the victim.

Victims of video blackmail are older or middle-aged men, as opposed to younger women, as has recently been widely believed. The fact that people are married is also data abused by blackmailers. However, there may be victims with a certain awareness, as well as victims who are completely unaware and unfamiliar with internet technologies, agree to send money to blackmailers or engage in aggressive communication with each other. Those who send money to blackmailers can face endless economic exploitation.

Video Blackmail from Abroad

Blackmail abroad or blackmail from abroad is the situation where people outside of Turkey commit the blackmail crime. In other words, it is the perpetrator in a foreign country committing a crime against the victim in Turkey. The crime of blackmail from a foreign country is usually committed over the internet or through video call recording. One of the most common versions of blackmail is the crime of video blackmail, committed by or through one or more people. In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in cyber crimes with the increase in the use of the internet and smart phones. The fact that people can communicate with each other without physically talking to each other over many applications allows this cyber blackmail crime to be committed against people from different parts of the world.

What Should a Victim of Blackmail Crime Do?

Sending money to the blackmailer will never solve the problem. Because as it is known, criminals work as an organization, ask for money from people with personal and private data, and if you send money, they share the images on the internet instead of deleting them. It is not possible for you to be, since the images and data that can be copied indefinitely will not be spread. In addition, we see that the blackmailers’ money requests do not stop, and they continue at a rate close to one hundred percent.

Since it is your first and primary goal to prevent the sharing of private images, it will be the best solution to consult a lawyer experienced in blackmail as soon as possible.

Many social networking platforms that you want support from will also advise you to work with a lawyer. The lawyer you should prefer in blackmail crime should be someone who does not know you and your relatives and who is specialized in this type of cybercrime and you will not doubt that he will comply with the obligation of confidentiality and secrecy.

In the case of blackmail via the internet, the lawyer works and should work in a multi-faceted manner in blackmail consultancy, tracking of personal and confidential content, preventing its spread, removing if any, litigation and legal process follow-up.

The attorney, who undertakes your legal consultancy, will keep the client’s every information confidential within the framework of the confidentiality obligation and ethical rules, by prioritizing client confidentiality, and will not share it with third parties other than the judicial authorities and will prevent it from being shared.

Advice for Victims of Video Blackmail

The lawyer who undertakes your legal consultancy should be in a quality to keep all kinds of information of the client confidential within the framework of confidentiality obligation and ethical rules, not to share it with third parties other than judicial authorities, and to keep all kinds of information about his client confidential, keeping the client confidentiality at the forefront.

Blackmail Via Whatsapp, Skype, Telegram, Instagram, Facebook

Whatsapp, Telegram, Skype and Facebook Messenger programs are the most frequently used programs in committing the crime of private image and video blackmail over the Internet. As it is known, in these programs, communication is provided by both video and voice conversation, and this is the choice that blackmailers can use.

Intimate Image Blackmail via Telegram

Telegram is a secure instant messaging service with multi-platform support that started broadcasting in August 2013. Telegram clients are available for both mobile and desktop systems. Similar to other types of blackmail, blackmail crime is widely committed over telegram, and this platform is more widely used by criminal gangs because its security control is weaker.

Messenger Intimate Image Blackmail

Messenger private image blackmail is often made with the threat of sending the victim’s relatives on Facebook as a result of recording private conversations and image sharing with fake Facebook profiles.

Facebook Intimate Image Blackmail

Facebook private image blackmail is often made with the threat of sending the victim’s relatives on Facebook as a result of recording private conversations and image sharings made on WhatsApp or messenger with fake Facebook profiles.

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