Yes. And there's a good chance that now that it's in international media and the scope is so large the king will catch wind of it and the repercussions for these guys will not be good.
In Nigeria you might get away with stuff like this. But Morocco is besides an Islamic country also one with ambitions, good ties to Europe and increasingly modern infrastructure (as evidenced by their Internet racket). If I were them and I read this news article, I'd be putting my Japanese motorbike and German car on the boat and cross gibraltar. I bet it's not too hard to become a Spanish citizen if you have money.
Presumably that depends on the laws of the jurisdiction in which the act takes place - and, of course - lawyers could probably argue for years which country's laws are applicable in this case.
Adding to this, it may be a very shrewdly chosen scam, as the crime (in some jurisdictions) of engaging in a sexual liaison without having the necessary paperwork in order may be graver than the one of blackmail.
Hence, even victims not giving in to the original scheme may find themselves unwilling or unable to report the scam to the authorities. Clever.
If a random girl asks you to show her your penis, first make sure you are doing it in person and she does not have any devices on her. How can people in this century not know that your stream (no pun intended) can be recorded.
Frankly, any photo or video on digital media is just a tiny little step away from being irreversibly published to the internet. People should never make photos or videos of that kind if they don't want it to be public.
> Frankly, any photo or video on digital media is just a tiny little step away from being irreversibly published to the internet. People should never make photos or videos of that kind if they don't want it to be public.
Alternatively, a photo of me in my nude being public should not mean that I am unfit for public office. Nobody would ban Jennifer Lawrence or Kate Upton if they wanted to be a teacher. Why should we fire our school teachers for sending nudes? Why should we refuse to hire people who have made sex tapes from teaching?
All this "think of the children" hysteria is pretty stupid.
Of course it shouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately humans are still humans, and judgemental attitudes abound. Hence the advice.
As an example, right now the pirate party in Iceland is being smeared with a picture the press found of one of their high-profile candidates of him shooting guns in Afghanistan. He was there doing charity work and they shot off some rounds one day in their off time. I'm still not sure what message is being sent by reposting this picture, but it seems to be working to some extent - I just overheard coworkers talking about "that gun nut running for the pirates".
There's a reason why they're targeting people of specific religious backgrounds. Religion has the ability to take garden variety embarrassment and passing judgments and turn them into suicidal embarrassment and public stonings, scarlet letters and the like. Obviously, the scammers doing this kind of crap are horrible excuses for human beings, but the organized religions of the world deserve some of the credit for creating such fucked up environments where scams of this sort can work so effectively.
They're also targeting prominent political conservatives like Ron Sandack, loudmouth State Rep. from Illinois. If you're one of the likely members of the lynch mob who would attack someone who has fallen for this scam, you're a likely target for this scam.
Really? I think it speaks poorly of the judgment of the person involved. I want the teachers of my children to have good judgment, so I think it's relevant.
> I think it speaks poorly of the judgment of the person involved. I want the teachers of my children to have good judgment, so I think it's relevant.
I think if we all had the good judgment of not having sex ever we would do much better for our children by stopping producing children in a world where we think a naked human body -- even one in the privacy of one's own bedroom -- is somehow shameful or an indicator of poor judgment.
Here's a question for you: assuming you have children, would you prohibit Jennifer Lawrence from going near your children? How about McKayla Maroney? Why is there a double standard here?
I never understood why people use their own genitalia. Just google for a plausible looking pic and send that. Even choose a nicer one if you like. By the time you are in the throws of passion I would think it unlikely someone would query it.
I would never request such explicit pictures from anyone but I would consider it a huge abuse of trust if I found out someone used wrong pictures claiming they're theirs, and that would be the end of that relationship.
I'm sort of surprised Google and Apple don't have a "private mode" camera option. Some way to mark a photo or the next X minutes, and those photos won't show up in the default camera roll. Maybe they trigger a second dialog before sharing. Just to try to minimise accidents.
Or alternatively, don't worry about it? I'm pretty sure the problem in general is too many unsolicited pictures (see Chatroulette). I'm having a hard time imagining the actual threat. It sounds embarrassing, like forgetting to wear clothes and getting stuck in public. Except, hopefully, you don't have friends and relatives that accept and share nudes of you, especially from strangers.
If someone sends a video of me masturbating to my mother, they probably wouldn't name the video "YOUR SON MASTURBATING.MP4".
And it probably varies by culture too, right? I would definitely be embarrassed if something like this was sent to my relatives and friends, but not €2,000 embarrassed. But I can easily see this being a very big deal in a much more traditional culture.
And now imagine that the victim is gay, and comes from a very conservative, religious culture, and both sides of the video are sent. (Or the victim isn't gay, but their masturbating video is just paired with another man's to make it look like they're gay.) Maybe they come from a culture where this means you're disowned, or worse.
I agree that we shouldn't worry about it, but we don't all have that luxury.
This is a series of reports from BBC2's Newsnight weeknightly current affairs analysis show. Been a flagship show for decades, and has as times been very good.
>Intelligent, articulate, and technologically adept, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that in a place with more opportunities a young man of Omar's talents could find a legitimate way to earn his $500 a day.
Pretty ridiculous statement there. Not many places on earth can a person earn that for simply being smart.
It could be a fictional place, they have plenty of opportunities.
I mean, this simple scam does not show much of a person.
1. You can use facebook
2. You know a weak spot in men that everyone knows about, and in countries that are more developed laws prevent companies to abuse men.
3. You know how to match when you type with a video recording that you are showing a person/victim.
Edit: on a social engineering level this doesn't score that high.
And I'm not going to list the negatives that this shows right now.
"He isn't so bad after all. Just an unpolished diamond forced into scamming by his environment!"
Running these scams doesn't require any kind of above average intelligence or rhetorical and technological skills. All this guy is doing is browsing social media websites for lonely men and pretend to be a pretty girl from a third world country to them. It's a no-brainer. I strongly doubt Omar has any skills that would get him an above average job.
I spent six weeks in Marrakech over the summer. The attitude among the locals is basically this: it you're a Muslim, you're "one of them" so you don't get scammed. If you're not a Muslim, you're fair game for everyone from small boys on the street to shop owners to obvious thugs to sex scams.
This is especially the case if you're a non-Muslim woman. I can't count the number of times men made crude comments to my gf. On several occasions shopkeepers sexually assaulted her with me standing right there!
I've been to some shitty places in my time, but none of them have been quite so horrible as Marrakech. Having said that, I also spent a couple of weeks in Fez and that was lovely — completely different atmosphere and attitude.
Edit: Just to be clear, I don't think this attitude is necessarily a Muslim thing. I think it's more to do with poverty and tourism. I live in Eastern Europe at the moment and there are plenty of scams here too, although not at the same level.
They're very touchy to start with. To take one example, I was looking at a leather bag (tip: never buy leather in Marrakech unless you like the smell of bird shit). The shopkeeper maneuvered us so we were facing each other, and then shoved his hand down the back of her jeans (I don't want to be more graphic) where I couldn't see what was happening, chatting away to me all the time.
She looked extremely uncomfortable and asked to leave the store, so we did. It's an awkward situation because when you're in the Medina you're surrounded by dozens of young guys who are related to the shopkeeper and you can't really kick up a stink about it.
Moroccan here and I found the first paragraph of your comment appaling. So you spent 6 weeks in a foreign country and that makes you now somehow a "subject matter expert in how moroccan think".
> "The attitude among the locals is basically this: it you're a Muslim, you're "one of them" so you don't get scammed. If you're not a Muslim, you're fair game for everyone from small boys on the street to shop owners to obvious thugs to sex scams."
Thank you for letting us know about your insight. I'm not saying you didn't experience this, I'm saying that you are making a dangerous generalization about all people of morocco/muslims. This scams by the way target wealthy people from the gulf, this has nothing to do with you being the "infidel" and being fair game. There are good and bad people everywhere. Your comment hints that moroccan only care about other muslims and would scam others because it doesn't matter. Well I can tell you it matters, we are human beings. Islam as any other Abrahamic religion, does not give you a free card cheating/scaming people just because they are not muslims.
I understand how what I said might offend you, but I clearly said It was more related to poverty and tourism than
Islam and that my experience of Fez was completely different, so I wasn't generalizing about Muslims or Morrocans.
But I stand by what I said: Marrakech, particularly the Medina is occupied by scam artists, thieves, thugs, and scum of every stripe. Perhaps this is based on an unusual and unrepresentative experience, but after six weeks of being harassed, conned, and abused I'm unlikely to return to find out different.
Your contention that they treat everyone this way, regardless
Of race, religion, or nationality, isn't comforting.
>I clearly said It was more related to poverty and tourism than Islam
No you didn't.
>But I stand by what I said: Marrakech, particularly the Medina is occupied by scam artists, thieves, thugs, and scum of every stripe. Perhaps this is based on an unusual and unrepresentative experience, but after six weeks of being harassed, conned, and abused I'm unlikely to return to find out different.
And that is fine with me, it's a tourist city and you would find similar cities around the world. I personally tend to avoid Marrakesh and Casablanca.
> Your contention that they treat everyone this way, regardless Of race, religion, or nationality, isn't comforting.
I still don't think you understood what I was saying. You are generalizing and tend to jump to conclusions quickly. I said scammers generally don't care about your religion, they only care about the money. Which happens surprise suprise everywhere in the world.
> The next day she sends me a message: "Hi, how are you? I saw your profile and I liked you." So I looked at her profile and, I mean, she was really hot
Well one of the points they bring up is that this type of scam works on a particular demographic because of their attitudes towards sex in general. So, I think Samir is really a victim and like all such victims he didn't see that people were using something very personal to exploit him.
Sure, so let's scam him. Idiots exist so we can explore them. The world is a place for the smart guys. We just have to hope there isn't someone smarter than us out there.
Remove the scam part for a moment and imagine if this guy was just playing a prank and posted the video to all his friends list without the extortion part. Without the extortion he committed no crime and Samir will still have exhibited terrible judgement with some serious consequences
Oh you're so smart you have never been scammed in your life. Scammers pray on weakness, one day you'll be weak one way or another and it can happen to you. Don't be too quick insulting people of being "idiots". Only scammers themselves think that way.
Samir receives a phone call from an unknown woman. The woman sounds really hot and sounds like she likes him. Samir arranges to meet the woman at his home, only to find it's actually a man. Samir is subsequently tied up and robbed of all his money and belongings.
What's so judgmental about what I said? I'm just reading the story and pointing out the obvious. It's really hard to feel sorry for someone who sends naked pictures to a stranger simply from a facebook message saying "Hi, how are you? I saw your profile and I liked you".
Samir didn't just fall for a Nigerian money scam or something (also a foolish thing to fall for). He was nude AND masturbated on video AND showed his face to a stranger on the internet, a public venue. I'd feel for him much more so if this was a private video/conversation with his SO that got hacked or their relationship went sour and she used it against him.
The rare times I considered doing something like this with an SO I was concerned just about it going to a secure cloud account in my control. So why would I give a stranger such power over me, even if their intentions are good? What if they got hacked and extorted, and I get caught up in it as a result? Is this experience really worth these risks?
Lastly, so far nothing bad actually happened to him anyway. He got smart quick once it went south and has been proactive ever since and as a result has mitigated the issue. I'm glad he shared his story, hopefully others like him read it and don't go through the same experience.
Samir is your grandpa who is showing signs of Alzheimer's. You are tied up in a legal battle to take custody of him. He's been roughed up and now fears for his life.
Samir is 21 years old and does not have Alzheimer's. People need to take some personal responsibility for their own ineptitude. The only way we learn as humans is from our experiences (good and bad).
The point I was making is you don't always know what makes a person an "idiot". Some it is simply a disease, others were born only slightly handicapped and from the outset can appear normal. Some are going through things and are mentally crushed, seeking out another person who appears to like them.
As it turns out, those dumb people are sometimes related to us and going through something.
Another thought, should we expect the geniuses of our time to completely exploit us? I mean, they are smarter and superior than the majority of us. Does that give them the right?
Perhaps murder victims that bought knives and pointed them at themselves and invited strangers to push, should take more responsibility. Also sarcastic.
Not everyone is as smart as you. You can either use your advantage to use them for your own gain, completely ignore them, or help them improve their lives. Personally, I choose the latter out of simple altruism.
Well, i guess the day is not far away where a NN dreaming your face into a homemade porn move, could automate this sort of scam. But if everyone is scamable- noone is.
Sorry guys, but this is not serious stuff. First of all, some people really pay that kind of money willingly for that kind of service. Then as a man, you don't have much repercussion for sexual acts like masturbating. Last but not least it was so easy to see that it can't be true.
Okay, now where can I apply ot get scammed by hot Lebanon girls?
very hard to fool a Chinese, there are tons of professional liars. The last time when someone using a pretty pic and ask for video chat and much more. I told him it is a fake video, and he is not good at it, then he shut down xD
I remember a french teen got scammed like this online, the scammer threatened to release nude videos of him if he didn't pay, the young man committed suicide because of the shame.
There are much more sophisticated versions of this where the girls are real and they embroil men in months long relationships and gather much more...ahem...extensive material. They also seek out high value targets, not necessarily millionaires but people in a high middle-income bracket.
The case that I am personally aware of the scammers were based in Ukraine and despite the person being quite cool headed about it, it did cost him severely.
There is a similar scam in the US, but it collects differently. After tricking the mark into interacting with the "beautiful girl", the scammer contacts the mark claiming to be her father (or sometimes a different role) and saying that the girl is under 18, and to pay a ransom or be reported to the police for sex crimes. This scam is so common that it is a "sticky thread" for Reddit's /r/legaladvice .
>Newly obtained police documents suggest that a cybersex blackmail scheme was behind Rep. Ron Sandack's (R-Downers Grove) resignation from the General Assembly.
> According to Downers Grove police reports, in early July Rep. Sandack was engaged in a video conversation via Skype with a woman "in her early 20's with long black hair." The woman, whom Sandack told police he didn't know, had originally contacted him on Facebook.
> Rep. Sandack, 52, and the woman had several text exchanges on Facebook that "could be characterized as friendly conversation, like two people getting to know basic information about each other" investigators say.
> A short time later, the Downers Grove father of two connected via Skype video-where internet users see and speak to each other on their computer screens. Although the nature of the conversation between Sandack and the woman is blacked out in the Downers Grove police report, similar blackmail schemes have resulted in disrobing and sex talk between the participants.
> In Sandack's case, the woman on the other end of the Skype hook-up told him that she had made a video of their encounter and would distribute it to all of his Facebook friends...unless he paid her a sum of money...which he did. This scheme is fairly widespread in the U.S. and well known to federal law enforcement officials. Authorities have screenshots of Mr. Sandack's communication with the woman.
First, why is she watching unsolicited "porn" if it's so bad? Second, what kind of parent watches a sex video of their kid? Should be obvious what's happening pretty quickly and then Alt-F4. And then why would a relative share the video?
I get there's a different cultural standard and not everyone can just shrug and say "ya well I don't know why you're watching videos of me".
It just seems like a serious deficiency if relatives are watching and sharing private media.
I've been in a similar position; a relative overshared something on Facebook. (You know those facebook "Like" buttons on Pornhub? Yeah, turns out they work.)
We quickly and discreetly contacted the relative, and let them know what they'd done, and they removed the evidence from Facebook.
If someone sent me a video of that sort, I would most certainly talk to the person about it - for all I know, they're in trouble, they might be about to send $2000 to some random person overseas for no particularly good reason. Or their computer might be infected with something that hijacks control of their camera.
1. new to the internet
2. Do not know many long time internet users
Are good targets for these scammers. There all over the place in dating apps... either the dating app's own inside scammers or the worst kind like this one.
Maybe there should be a quiz before you are allowed on the internet that's schools you on if a hot young chick is crazy eager for you but you never met and she's lives far away well then....ummmm.....
Spam bots have added me on Skype before and I've occasionally tested out how they respond to certain things. Usually nothing interesting but if you mention calling the police they say this (copied from a log):
"hahaha! call em! and tell them you are reporting a felony... YOUR HAIRSTYLE!! You might wanna get that looked at!"
All the bots I tried it on did that same thing, so apparently they're all from the same software, and maybe even the same organization.
I've dealt with a ring like this when ww.com was still active, a bunch of Romanian women had begun targeting the men on there. In the end I set myself up as a potential victim to see how they went about their business and sure enough, a couple of hours of chatting later the requests for nudity started to roll in.
The girls were all real, I figured out some of their moves and got rid of all of them, it took a while to puzzle out the extent of the whole thing. Likely they made 1000's if not 10's of 1000's of euros before we got wind of it because the victims were extremely reluctant to contact one of the moderators or the authorities.
The simplest advice I can give to anybody that is being propositioned by some girl online is to simply not get undressed in front of your webcam.
It's sad that technology that I had a hand in creating is abused like this, and it really pissed me off that my website was a direct tool for blackmail.
But at least that particular ring got shut down, however it is likely they moved on to other ways of reaching their victims.
Reminds me of my earlier bipolar days enjoying the rides of full blown mania, wherein in addition to being psychotic you also may become hypersexual, very social and, if on a computer, become fast and loose in communicating with as many people, including family members, as possible.
On countless occasions I have sent out mass emails that anyone would regard as far less damaging to one's reputation and dignity than a masturbation chat video, not just because of the sexual content, but because they revealed to everyone I knew that I was able to descend into psychosis; and to those who were familiar with such mood disorders that I failed or opted not to prevent myself with medicines to fall into those depths, and accordingly ought not be trusted.
Once I played ball with my shrink and became successfully treated with the right "cocktail" of meds, getting the disease well under control (it's been over a decade since my last manic episode), I found my social life soon fully restored, friends and family and coworkers, and eventually went on to get married have a kid, yada yada, living treated and happily ever after.
People have a short term memories even with things you do that are greatly embarrassing (unless, I suppose, if there's some heinous criminal component). Or some are overly-judgmental and prudish and perhaps not as valuable a friend as you had thought. So, if you screw up either because you had an Anthony Weiner episode or because you went on the Internet while manic, consider that the damage to your life that you're envisioning once your sanity is restored is greatly exaggerated in your mind and that you may successfully live it down.
Just a youtube masturbation link? Two thousand bucks that might turn into fifteen thousand two weeks later? Hell, might as well "get out in front of it" and post the link yourself with a note in the description that you're being blackmailed or extorted and you are posting this yourself in a bid to disarm the criminal so that you can move on with your life more briskly, with a suggestion to those watching not to watch any further and not to combine both your private parts and your face in the same picture or video.
The following few weeks may be a bit awkward but as has been noted in other comments most will pretend it never happened or won't care (perhaps they too know /firsthand/ what it's like to masturbate) or will resume liking you again after a surprisingly short period of time passes. As for being married, you each made vows, divorce is a major schlep, and if in your estimation your marriage is vulnerable to the likes of such an incident, you should work on your marriage before letting your hair down on Facebook and Skype.
I just recently left Morocco after spending some weeks there with a group of travellers. The high incidence of catfishing on Tinder was a bit surprising to us. I wonder if it's a related branch of the sextortion trade.
1) Am I the only person who doesn't accept random facebook friend requests, ESPECIALLY from beautiful women? If I don't know you, I just assume that you are trying to scam me by becoming my facebook friend. Then again, there must be SOME people who just randomly friend strangers that they have no connection with (or half of the stories in MTV's "Catfish" would have never happened).
2) People really shouldn't freak out too much about there family seeing nudes/sexual pics of them. My mother actually has unintentionally seen sexually explicit photos of me, and it wasn't nearly as big of a deal as I thought it would be. I let her use one of my USB drives, but forgot that there were pictures of myself and ex-girlfriends involved in some more intimate activities.
The result was that my conservative religious mommy realized her then 34yo son was not her "baby" anymore and she called the photos vulgar and pornographic, but beyond that, the world didn't end. I was embarrassed for about 30 seconds, then realized that the only thing that has really changed is she has visual proof that I am sexually active. Well, I am LIVING PROOF that she was sexually active AT LEAST ONCE, so what is the big deal?
The only REALLY uncomfortable part was when the nurse in her came out, and she started grilling me on contraception and whether I was getting regularly tested for STDs. Then she started pleading with me to tell her if she had any grandchildren out there (she doesn't). That turned into the "you really need to settle down and give me some grand-babies" discussion. I offered to buy her a puppy instead, but she said that wasn't the same.
I guess the whole point of my post is that (at least in the West) photos like this might be a little embarrassing, but if your family and friends love you, they will STILL love you even after seeing a video of you doing something that EVERYBODY does, only in private.
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[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 150 ms ] threadIn Nigeria you might get away with stuff like this. But Morocco is besides an Islamic country also one with ambitions, good ties to Europe and increasingly modern infrastructure (as evidenced by their Internet racket). If I were them and I read this news article, I'd be putting my Japanese motorbike and German car on the boat and cross gibraltar. I bet it's not too hard to become a Spanish citizen if you have money.
Adding to this, it may be a very shrewdly chosen scam, as the crime (in some jurisdictions) of engaging in a sexual liaison without having the necessary paperwork in order may be graver than the one of blackmail.
Hence, even victims not giving in to the original scheme may find themselves unwilling or unable to report the scam to the authorities. Clever.
Wait, is posting porn to youtube a criminal offense?
Alternatively, a photo of me in my nude being public should not mean that I am unfit for public office. Nobody would ban Jennifer Lawrence or Kate Upton if they wanted to be a teacher. Why should we fire our school teachers for sending nudes? Why should we refuse to hire people who have made sex tapes from teaching?
All this "think of the children" hysteria is pretty stupid.
As an example, right now the pirate party in Iceland is being smeared with a picture the press found of one of their high-profile candidates of him shooting guns in Afghanistan. He was there doing charity work and they shot off some rounds one day in their off time. I'm still not sure what message is being sent by reposting this picture, but it seems to be working to some extent - I just overheard coworkers talking about "that gun nut running for the pirates".
I think if we all had the good judgment of not having sex ever we would do much better for our children by stopping producing children in a world where we think a naked human body -- even one in the privacy of one's own bedroom -- is somehow shameful or an indicator of poor judgment.
Here's a question for you: assuming you have children, would you prohibit Jennifer Lawrence from going near your children? How about McKayla Maroney? Why is there a double standard here?
I can't honestly think I'd care.
And it probably varies by culture too, right? I would definitely be embarrassed if something like this was sent to my relatives and friends, but not €2,000 embarrassed. But I can easily see this being a very big deal in a much more traditional culture.
And now imagine that the victim is gay, and comes from a very conservative, religious culture, and both sides of the video are sent. (Or the victim isn't gay, but their masturbating video is just paired with another man's to make it look like they're gay.) Maybe they come from a culture where this means you're disowned, or worse.
I agree that we shouldn't worry about it, but we don't all have that luxury.
Pretty ridiculous statement there. Not many places on earth can a person earn that for simply being smart.
I mean, this simple scam does not show much of a person. 1. You can use facebook 2. You know a weak spot in men that everyone knows about, and in countries that are more developed laws prevent companies to abuse men. 3. You know how to match when you type with a video recording that you are showing a person/victim.
Edit: on a social engineering level this doesn't score that high.
And I'm not going to list the negatives that this shows right now.
Let's not glamorize it.
Running these scams doesn't require any kind of above average intelligence or rhetorical and technological skills. All this guy is doing is browsing social media websites for lonely men and pretend to be a pretty girl from a third world country to them. It's a no-brainer. I strongly doubt Omar has any skills that would get him an above average job.
Or... with basic human decency, whether you're Moroccan and Islamic or not.
This is especially the case if you're a non-Muslim woman. I can't count the number of times men made crude comments to my gf. On several occasions shopkeepers sexually assaulted her with me standing right there!
I've been to some shitty places in my time, but none of them have been quite so horrible as Marrakech. Having said that, I also spent a couple of weeks in Fez and that was lovely — completely different atmosphere and attitude.
Edit: Just to be clear, I don't think this attitude is necessarily a Muslim thing. I think it's more to do with poverty and tourism. I live in Eastern Europe at the moment and there are plenty of scams here too, although not at the same level.
She looked extremely uncomfortable and asked to leave the store, so we did. It's an awkward situation because when you're in the Medina you're surrounded by dozens of young guys who are related to the shopkeeper and you can't really kick up a stink about it.
> "The attitude among the locals is basically this: it you're a Muslim, you're "one of them" so you don't get scammed. If you're not a Muslim, you're fair game for everyone from small boys on the street to shop owners to obvious thugs to sex scams."
Thank you for letting us know about your insight. I'm not saying you didn't experience this, I'm saying that you are making a dangerous generalization about all people of morocco/muslims. This scams by the way target wealthy people from the gulf, this has nothing to do with you being the "infidel" and being fair game. There are good and bad people everywhere. Your comment hints that moroccan only care about other muslims and would scam others because it doesn't matter. Well I can tell you it matters, we are human beings. Islam as any other Abrahamic religion, does not give you a free card cheating/scaming people just because they are not muslims.
But I stand by what I said: Marrakech, particularly the Medina is occupied by scam artists, thieves, thugs, and scum of every stripe. Perhaps this is based on an unusual and unrepresentative experience, but after six weeks of being harassed, conned, and abused I'm unlikely to return to find out different.
Your contention that they treat everyone this way, regardless Of race, religion, or nationality, isn't comforting.
No you didn't.
>But I stand by what I said: Marrakech, particularly the Medina is occupied by scam artists, thieves, thugs, and scum of every stripe. Perhaps this is based on an unusual and unrepresentative experience, but after six weeks of being harassed, conned, and abused I'm unlikely to return to find out different.
And that is fine with me, it's a tourist city and you would find similar cities around the world. I personally tend to avoid Marrakesh and Casablanca.
> Your contention that they treat everyone this way, regardless Of race, religion, or nationality, isn't comforting.
I still don't think you understood what I was saying. You are generalizing and tend to jump to conclusions quickly. I said scammers generally don't care about your religion, they only care about the money. Which happens surprise suprise everywhere in the world.
Then "they all pay" can't be true. Either it takes longer, or the payment rate is lower. The numbers don't add up.
If that's all it took, Samir is an idiot.
... creating a 20 year long world of relationships, work and virtual reality is all it took to fool sickbeard. He really deserved it.
Remove the scam part for a moment and imagine if this guy was just playing a prank and posted the video to all his friends list without the extortion part. Without the extortion he committed no crime and Samir will still have exhibited terrible judgement with some serious consequences
Oh you're so smart you have never been scammed in your life. Scammers pray on weakness, one day you'll be weak one way or another and it can happen to you. Don't be too quick insulting people of being "idiots". Only scammers themselves think that way.
Is Samir an idiot (Y/N)?:
And this is a crisis because?
Samir didn't just fall for a Nigerian money scam or something (also a foolish thing to fall for). He was nude AND masturbated on video AND showed his face to a stranger on the internet, a public venue. I'd feel for him much more so if this was a private video/conversation with his SO that got hacked or their relationship went sour and she used it against him.
The rare times I considered doing something like this with an SO I was concerned just about it going to a secure cloud account in my control. So why would I give a stranger such power over me, even if their intentions are good? What if they got hacked and extorted, and I get caught up in it as a result? Is this experience really worth these risks?
Lastly, so far nothing bad actually happened to him anyway. He got smart quick once it went south and has been proactive ever since and as a result has mitigated the issue. I'm glad he shared his story, hopefully others like him read it and don't go through the same experience.
Did your grandpa deserve that (Y/N)?
As it turns out, those dumb people are sometimes related to us and going through something.
Another thought, should we expect the geniuses of our time to completely exploit us? I mean, they are smarter and superior than the majority of us. Does that give them the right?
personal responsibility is a thing.
- The people who are scamming Samir are criminals.
One does not preclude the other. It's called "preying on the weak" and it's the reason why we have laws and stuff.
Problem solved, next low point of the species.
Okay, now where can I apply ot get scammed by hot Lebanon girls?
The case that I am personally aware of the scammers were based in Ukraine and despite the person being quite cool headed about it, it did cost him severely.
>Newly obtained police documents suggest that a cybersex blackmail scheme was behind Rep. Ron Sandack's (R-Downers Grove) resignation from the General Assembly.
> According to Downers Grove police reports, in early July Rep. Sandack was engaged in a video conversation via Skype with a woman "in her early 20's with long black hair." The woman, whom Sandack told police he didn't know, had originally contacted him on Facebook.
> Rep. Sandack, 52, and the woman had several text exchanges on Facebook that "could be characterized as friendly conversation, like two people getting to know basic information about each other" investigators say.
> A short time later, the Downers Grove father of two connected via Skype video-where internet users see and speak to each other on their computer screens. Although the nature of the conversation between Sandack and the woman is blacked out in the Downers Grove police report, similar blackmail schemes have resulted in disrobing and sex talk between the participants.
> In Sandack's case, the woman on the other end of the Skype hook-up told him that she had made a video of their encounter and would distribute it to all of his Facebook friends...unless he paid her a sum of money...which he did. This scheme is fairly widespread in the U.S. and well known to federal law enforcement officials. Authorities have screenshots of Mr. Sandack's communication with the woman.
First, why is she watching unsolicited "porn" if it's so bad? Second, what kind of parent watches a sex video of their kid? Should be obvious what's happening pretty quickly and then Alt-F4. And then why would a relative share the video?
I get there's a different cultural standard and not everyone can just shrug and say "ya well I don't know why you're watching videos of me".
It just seems like a serious deficiency if relatives are watching and sharing private media.
We quickly and discreetly contacted the relative, and let them know what they'd done, and they removed the evidence from Facebook.
Secondly, you probably don't hang out with cargo-cult-religious people too much. See One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest's "pecking party" for some idea.
1. new to the internet 2. Do not know many long time internet users
Are good targets for these scammers. There all over the place in dating apps... either the dating app's own inside scammers or the worst kind like this one.
Maybe there should be a quiz before you are allowed on the internet that's schools you on if a hot young chick is crazy eager for you but you never met and she's lives far away well then....ummmm.....
"hahaha! call em! and tell them you are reporting a felony... YOUR HAIRSTYLE!! You might wanna get that looked at!"
All the bots I tried it on did that same thing, so apparently they're all from the same software, and maybe even the same organization.
The girls were all real, I figured out some of their moves and got rid of all of them, it took a while to puzzle out the extent of the whole thing. Likely they made 1000's if not 10's of 1000's of euros before we got wind of it because the victims were extremely reluctant to contact one of the moderators or the authorities.
The simplest advice I can give to anybody that is being propositioned by some girl online is to simply not get undressed in front of your webcam.
It's sad that technology that I had a hand in creating is abused like this, and it really pissed me off that my website was a direct tool for blackmail.
But at least that particular ring got shut down, however it is likely they moved on to other ways of reaching their victims.
On countless occasions I have sent out mass emails that anyone would regard as far less damaging to one's reputation and dignity than a masturbation chat video, not just because of the sexual content, but because they revealed to everyone I knew that I was able to descend into psychosis; and to those who were familiar with such mood disorders that I failed or opted not to prevent myself with medicines to fall into those depths, and accordingly ought not be trusted.
Once I played ball with my shrink and became successfully treated with the right "cocktail" of meds, getting the disease well under control (it's been over a decade since my last manic episode), I found my social life soon fully restored, friends and family and coworkers, and eventually went on to get married have a kid, yada yada, living treated and happily ever after.
People have a short term memories even with things you do that are greatly embarrassing (unless, I suppose, if there's some heinous criminal component). Or some are overly-judgmental and prudish and perhaps not as valuable a friend as you had thought. So, if you screw up either because you had an Anthony Weiner episode or because you went on the Internet while manic, consider that the damage to your life that you're envisioning once your sanity is restored is greatly exaggerated in your mind and that you may successfully live it down.
Just a youtube masturbation link? Two thousand bucks that might turn into fifteen thousand two weeks later? Hell, might as well "get out in front of it" and post the link yourself with a note in the description that you're being blackmailed or extorted and you are posting this yourself in a bid to disarm the criminal so that you can move on with your life more briskly, with a suggestion to those watching not to watch any further and not to combine both your private parts and your face in the same picture or video.
The following few weeks may be a bit awkward but as has been noted in other comments most will pretend it never happened or won't care (perhaps they too know /firsthand/ what it's like to masturbate) or will resume liking you again after a surprisingly short period of time passes. As for being married, you each made vows, divorce is a major schlep, and if in your estimation your marriage is vulnerable to the likes of such an incident, you should work on your marriage before letting your hair down on Facebook and Skype.
1) Am I the only person who doesn't accept random facebook friend requests, ESPECIALLY from beautiful women? If I don't know you, I just assume that you are trying to scam me by becoming my facebook friend. Then again, there must be SOME people who just randomly friend strangers that they have no connection with (or half of the stories in MTV's "Catfish" would have never happened).
2) People really shouldn't freak out too much about there family seeing nudes/sexual pics of them. My mother actually has unintentionally seen sexually explicit photos of me, and it wasn't nearly as big of a deal as I thought it would be. I let her use one of my USB drives, but forgot that there were pictures of myself and ex-girlfriends involved in some more intimate activities.
The result was that my conservative religious mommy realized her then 34yo son was not her "baby" anymore and she called the photos vulgar and pornographic, but beyond that, the world didn't end. I was embarrassed for about 30 seconds, then realized that the only thing that has really changed is she has visual proof that I am sexually active. Well, I am LIVING PROOF that she was sexually active AT LEAST ONCE, so what is the big deal?
The only REALLY uncomfortable part was when the nurse in her came out, and she started grilling me on contraception and whether I was getting regularly tested for STDs. Then she started pleading with me to tell her if she had any grandchildren out there (she doesn't). That turned into the "you really need to settle down and give me some grand-babies" discussion. I offered to buy her a puppy instead, but she said that wasn't the same.
I guess the whole point of my post is that (at least in the West) photos like this might be a little embarrassing, but if your family and friends love you, they will STILL love you even after seeing a video of you doing something that EVERYBODY does, only in private.