Sextortion - The Adverse Effect of Dating Sites

Using dating apps is the norm for Gen Z, but it is only easy for the straight and heterosexual individuals in society, it isn't that straightforward for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. For members of the community, setting up dating app profiles could potentially cause a risk to their safety. This is due to the fact that there are hundreds of scammers who are willing to blackmail people and threaten to out them in exchange for their valuables. This is known as sextortion.

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​There are multiple LGBTQIA+ based dating apps and users have complained about issues of sextortion, with people claiming to be the police calling their number and threatening to reveal or out the individual.

These scammers then meet up with the individual in a secluded area and then abuse or assault them and then proceed to steal all their valuables. 

 

Though the supreme court announced the decriminalisation of consensual sex between same-sex adults, members of the community still find it hard to go about their day without the fear of being judged or outed. The scammers then use this same fear to extort and blackmail them and in some cases also abuse them. They take videos and photos of the individual and blackmail them. Though not many of these cases reach the police, it has been noted that the majority of the time, these scammers work in groups or gangs.

 

Chennai based LGBTQIA+ welfare organisations named Thozhi and Sahodaran have been working with victims to help them put the perpetrators behind bars and have been taking on cases where they analyse chat histories and phone records to identify the culprit.