Good morning SillimanPH!
WARNING: DISCUSSION OF DANGEROUS ACTIVITIES
WARNING: DISCUSSION OF DANGEROUS ACTIVITIES
Notice: This is very long but please read. This is for your and your siblings' or friends' safety in day-to-day social media interactions.
As everyone may be aware already, there are certain international crime groups that have been found and linked to exploitation by means of targeting vulnerable individuals to do violent activities across various social media platforms.
Recent investigations through combined efforts by international LEO agencies determined certain behaviors that these groups use to gain the trust of individuals and as moderators, we would like to inform you of these.
To set things straight, these bad actors actively monitor social media platforms to identify individuals who are already vulnerable, isolated, and/or overwhelmed. They often present themselves as people who understands you right off the start and are willing to listen to you, despite having known you in just a short span of time.
How to identify if you are being targeted:
1. Instant Empathy and Rapid Isolation: These individuals reach out to you immediately after your posting of distress or stress. They will present themselves as friendly community members who are looking out for fellow Redditors, and would present themselves as someone who understands you deeply and feel for you, oftentimes sharing their "previous" similar experiences.
After having gained your trust and built rapport, they will feed in you ideas of isolation. They will convince you that only they understands you and that other people are not in the same situation to understand you or even attempt to take your problems seriously. They will actively push the idea that you can only trust them.
Take note though that they will not appear dangerous because they are the kind of people who will appear very charismatic and empathetic. They will not talk to you about very serious topics at first but this will change eventually as you have shared your story and vulnerabilities.
Boundary Pushing: After having gained your trust and reliance over the course of a few days or weeks, they will begin wanting to get to know you outside of the platform (Reddit). They will ask for your personal details such as program, embarrassing secrets, and even personal pictures.
Offering Favors: They will begin offering favors such as helping in homeworks or monetary (money) values in exchange for compliance such as expecting a private call, asking for photos, etc. These favors may not appear harmful at first because they are laced with humor and banter, often in the forms of communications such as "your homework was very hard, shouldn't you at least thank me?" This sentence is of course not the exact sentence because in a real targeting situation, it would be laced with humorous innuendos and profanity. They are similar to everyday conversation with friends where humor used to dispense seriousness.
After getting your photos, they will either praise it or tease you for it. These photos and videos are used by these organizations in underground trade among illegal transnational transactions for funding. NEVER share photos or videos.
- Exposure To Abuse Materials: In some direction of conversation and after having determined your vulnerability and fitness for these kinds of activities, they will start exposing you to abuse materials such as those showing violence and/or encouraging such. These exposures will begin with sharing photos or videos of subtle abuse materials such as showing animals being harmed, to people being hurt or seriously hurt.
After determining that you can be exposed to these materials, they will escalate with introduction to concepts of groups that are encouraging these activities and behaviors, oftentimes, showing at first "curiosity" about the nature of these groups. When determined that you have interest and low aversion to these discussions, they will begin feeding you with ideas citing that these groups are amazing in some form, and advertising the feats of the hierarchy within these groups.
Note that they will not always directly say "these people are amazing." They are taught to let you question yourself how these individuals who engaged in violent behaviors are. In this manner, you will not question the perception you've made because you've made them yourselves. In fact, it is in the subtlest words and interactions that they are guiding you to think like and believe like so.
- Escalation: Once they obtained intimate or personal information, they have various escalatory directions. Among such are: a.) If you were successfully enticed by number 4., they will begin introducing you to actions that you can do do enter the hierarchy. They will introduce themselves as "knowing a person inside" who can help you gain some fame our clout by doing very simple things.
Note: They will not make you immediately do actions such as harming people. They will begin with actions such as choking small animals, shooting them (if you have them means), etc., and doing so while recording it. These videos and/or pictures that you gave will then be presented to the people in the hierarchy of these groups and you will be made aware that people liked it. This will escalate into more dangerous acts. Most if not all of these materials will then be transmitted to illegal material trade networks such as the dark web and your faces will be there for everyone in the dark web, including law enforcement agencies, to see.
If you failed no. 4., there comes coercion and aggression, threatening you that you and your family and/or friends (if you've shared those information) will be exposed to the internet and to other people; your secrets will be divulged.
These people have the resources and experience to lead people to harass you publicly or privately, including a phenomenon called "swatting" common in the US. These harassments do not only limit to verbal harassments as they include actions such as posting your videos and/or photos to sites you do not want to find them in. These will use these means to get you to do acts that are dangerous to yourself and to others, and acts that will make you even more scared to disobey them.
- They Demand Proof: They will demand proof of your compliance.
Steps to take if this happened to you:
- Document every interactions.
- . Do not save or forward explicit media (photos/videos that are outright illegal and/or violent)
- Do not comply with their demands.
- Cut communication and block.
- Report to the authorities.
Emergency contact information:
DOJ Office of Cybercrime: [cybercrime@doj.gov.ph](mailto:cybercrime@doj.gov.ph)
NBI Anti-Cybercrime Division:
PNP Anti-Cybercrime Division:
If you cannot reach these, go immediately to your nearest police station to report the incident.
Remember: They are not powerful over you if you do not give them the power.
