Tips and Measures to Protect Yourself from Extortion

With the increase of usage of technology increases the likelihood of internet extortion hikes up. Electronic extortion related to money has been increasing from the past few years. Every now and then we hear about scams of extortion cases. Shop owners are often demanded money by the extorters for rending them protection against any potential theft or robbery.

Money extortion, electronic extortion, and cyber or Internet extortion happen every now and then. Extorters will blackmail or intimidate the innocent people for getting the ransom amount. Therefore, in this article, we will be concentrating on ways to protect and avoid extortion and save yourself and your business.

Extortion meaning- 

To understand the ways to protect yourself from extortion, you must know what extortion is. Obtaining money, service property, or any possession of someone else by coercion, which is a criminal offense. There are many ways of committing extortion that an offender can use. The most common type of extortion is money related however, now with the extreme usage of internet the electronic extortion has become very frequent. 

With the increase in extortion cases, the authorities around the world have formed a separate department for such cases and take these types of cases very seriously. The punishment for the crime extortion is fine or imprisonment depending upon the severity of the crime. According to a country’s federal and state law, the prison sentence for extortion is up to 18 years depending upon the nature of the crime, whether it is related to money or property.

What to do?

The individuals who feel they are being extorted or blackmailed for anything in any way should report the crime right away. They should report the suspected person right away without any delay. The more the victim delays to report the crime, the more he or she will get trapped. Agreeing to the terms and conditions of the extorter will make the matter even worse and give the offender more power to blackmail you further. Thus, reporting the crime as soon as you get blackmailed is the first step towards protecting yourself.

There are many ways to protect yourself from the threat of extortion which can be implemented by everyone: -

Secure your Computer

Nowadays a lot of fraud happens through the medium internet, so it becomes extremely important to secure our computer and data from any potential cyber-attacks. Early signs of an attack can include the detection of viruses or malware in the computer system. One should also look out for any spam emails which can contain malware that can hack your computer or jeopardize your personal data. Thus, it becomes extremely important that your computer is equipped with anti-spyware or antivirus software or you can also get affordable managed it services st Louis. 

Furthermore, it becomes essential that your passwords specifically for your home surveillance cameras are particularly strong such that no one can get access to your private life and later blackmail you using your private videos. From this, one can understand that it is crucial to stay alert at all give points in time while operating one’s computer and look out for any unsolicited pop-up signs that could be an indicator of a cyber-attack. To this end, you should disconnect your computer from Wi-Fi as soon as you are done with its usage.

Another dangerous aspect of sharing via the internet includes the revelation of one’s credit card or bank details. People assume that it is perfectly safe and secure to use messaging or emails for their sharing their card details. However, it is highly dangerous to share such information, because the extorter or the internet hacker is skilled to break into our personal accounts, which is usually protected with flimsy passwords. Thus the individuals should beware of all the threats that they might face regarding their accounts. 

Information about Current Scams

Being up-to-date becomes tremendously relevant when it comes to securing or protecting yourself from any form of extortion. The extorter might have some of your basic details and make a believable story based on the few facts and the details that have been discovered by him or her through the internet or otherwise. Now it is completely up to the recipient to buy the story or not. 

For protecting oneself against such stories, one should verify and double-check the veracity of the statements being made by the extorter. There can be instances when the extorter has real dangerous information against you but it is also possible that the extorter is bluffing you and taking you for a ride because you are extremely gullible and did not do your homework of fact-checking before giving in to his reckless demands. The knowledge of current scams goes a long way in calling out the bluff of the extorter who generally tends to follow the tricks which are currently in trend.  

In conclusion, one must stay alert and not panic under any given scenario, report the unauthorized activity at once to protect oneself against any untowardly happening.