Extortion correspondence is threatening correspondence sent to potential victims in order to extort money. Extortion correspondence may focus on different elements, such as exposing the victim’s activities in real life or online to work (e.g. cheating on a partner or visiting porn sites), friends and family. It can also threaten to harm or kill the victim, with blackmailers frequently asking for payment in cryptocurrency.
Why are they a problem?
They evoke fear and shame, making the victim feel like they have nowhere to turn. This makes them less likely to report the experience or share it with anyone. Because of this, fraud prevention concentrating on this type of crime needs to be expertly designed to address certain emotional and psychological triggers that are evoked by this type of correspondence.
Intense fear means people can’t think clearly
Fear is a primal drive state, which compromises careful thinking. Under its influence, individual is likely to concentrate on the goals associated with the state of fear (e.g. fight or flight).
Fear has two components, biochemical (increased adrenaline that make us alert to danger) and emotional, which is unique to each person. Some people experience fear as a positive emotion (e.g. extreme sports) and some are more averse to fear and won’t be able to deal with it in a rational way.
What rational advice under fear looks like
Although this is rational advice - in a situation where fear is evoked, rational advice is not easily recalled or used.
Illustrator: © dubravko Kastrapeli 2020 - illustration produced for a book ‘The Psychology of Fraud, Persuasion and Scam Techniques’ by M. Dove (2020)
Key insights
Several insights were identified during the analysis of extortion correspondence, showing complexity of such phishing attacks. Scammers used specific techniques to:
Enhance credibility
Legitimize the crime
Induce fear and helplessness
Research rationale
Collect 60 examples of extortion type correspondence making sure they show variety - to note different persuasion techniques
Examine the correspondence for common elements and convert these into metrics - to examine frequency of occurrence for specific elements
Analyse the correspondence using thematic analysis - to note themes and sub-themes underlying this types of correspondence
Coding and theme
mapping
Coding process includes examining the correspondence and noting certain excerpts of interest. Then seeing what purpose they serve in the correspondence.
Thematic map
Thematic mapping shows the underlying structure of a phenomenon or a concept.
Extortion type phishing attacks are complex and full of persuasion
Descriptives
Majority of examples contained a sexual component, either specifying victim was caught masturbating through their webcam or visiting porn sites. Some alluded to victim’s ‘dirty’ secret. Some cited victim’s data, such as phone number, email or even a password and many imposed time limits of 24-48 hours. Some explained how to buy bitcoin.
Types of threats found
Other types of extortions included bomb threats and threats to harm or injure the victim.
Frequently, scammers mentioned being undetectable, discouraging the victim from going to the authorities.
Key insights
Enhancing credibility
Scammers try to enhance credibility of the correspondence by quoting victim’s details, mentioning affiliation to hacker groups on the dark web, giving technological explanations of how they come to have victim’s data and giving explanations for their poor spelling.
Legitimizing the crime
Legitimacy is a key in such correspondence, this is emphasised through drawing parallels with legitimate transactions and occupations. Scammers also remind the victim this is not personal, it’s just their job.
Inducing fear
The way this type of correspondence works is by threatening the victims and the threats can be complex, some are implied rather than explicit.
Others threaten to expose the victim’s secret to a romantic partner. Sometimes the scammer issues a secondary threat (e.g. threatening to lock a computer).
Torment and shame
Potential victims are tormented through the correspondence. Some are told the scammer has been observing them for a while. One victim, who received a letter through the mail, was told he was being watched for a while and local landmarks were mentioned.
Shame is induced in two ways: semantically (e.g. by reminding the victim of the humiliation they would feel) and by pointing to social norms (e.g. alluding to weird tastes). This is likely to increase feelings of fear
Inducing intense shame is likely to increase fear
Inducing helplessness
Scammers induce feelings of helplessness by explaining why the best course of action is to pay the ransom and not go to the police. They also alert to lack of time they were given to pay the ransom, if they report it to the authorities. This is likely to make the victim feel the fight is futile and accept the terms.
Using scam techniques
There are several scam techniques being used in this type of correspondence and the most prevalent one is ‘Urgency’. Victims are given time limits (usually one or two days) to send the funds. This is likely to result in impulsive decisions. Besides this, in some cases the victim is groomed to purchase bitcoin. Scammers realise that sudden purchase of cryptocurrency may rouse suspicion with friends or family so they groom the victims to keep a secret and not mention why they are purchasing it.
Additionally, and rather bizarrely, in some cases a scammer takes up a specific role, almost like a friend, berating the victim for being caught in the situation and not being more careful. Frequently scammers use techniques where they adopt a specific role (altercasting) so perhaps in this case, they may use this to minimise the ordeal and somehow make the victim feel they are looking out for them.
Understanding the issue leads to better prevention
Some reasons why conventional fraud prevention measures fail, when it comes to (s)extortion
Visceral influence (panic, fear) is very influential. Rational advice will not be recalled when someone is under visceral influence.
Persuasive elements subliminally influence decision making and encourage compliance
Offering technological explanations will sound convincing enough to most people who have limited knowledge in the area
Careful use of rhetoric in such emails induces semantic priming
Induced helplessness will encourage victims to surrender the fight - this is even more true of people averse to fear
Additionally, fraud prevention in this area should
Explain the reasons behind emotional response to such emails - this may reduce impulsive reactions people typically have to such correspondence
Explain how scammers induce helplessness and why this is important - this may empower victims to fight and not flight when they encounter the situation
Potential victims should be encouraged to be open around (s)extortion - sharing the experience is likely to lead to greater knowledge as well as more awareness of how social norms shape one’s behaviour in a detrimental way