Sociologist and sex educator Barbara Rothmüller on new forms of fraud on the Internet.
A few days ago I received a subpoena by email. It came from the Ministry of the Interior, EUROPOL and the Federal Criminal Police Office. A case has been brought against me for cyber pornography and exhibitionism. – What? Had I not closed the curtains or exposed myself in public? I was not aware of any guilt.
The police subpoena reminded me that “erotic messages and scenes of display and masturbation were practiced via webcam and instant chat sessions.” In addition, child pornography was made available to minors under the age of 16. The exhibitionist images and videos are enough to arrest me and put me on the national sex offender registry. So far, so bad.
The police kindly offered me a solution: I had to send a reason for my crime to the directorate of the Federal Criminal Investigation Department under “tribunal.minister3″ within 48 hours. What should one write there? – “Dear director of the Federal Criminal Police Office. I confess: I have watched cyber pornography. But it’s not what you think! I only did it because…” I’d like to read the justification. By this “offer” at the latest, it was clear that someone had pulled a fraudulent prank.
Sexting is as common as the fear of sex images falling into the wrong hands. Such attempts at fraud are therefore always successful. Fearing public humiliation, victims are tricked into confessing and paying scammers large sums of money so that they are not known to have watched porn or taken sexually explicit material. Do not be intimidated by such untrustworthy spam emails.
Not everyone realizes that the alleged “subpoena” contains not only false senders and accusations, but also false content. Correct: Pornography should not be made accessible to young people under the age of 18. Child pornography is strictly prohibited. If you come across images of sexual abuse by minors on the internet, you can (and must) report this anonymously to, for example, the Stopline hotline. The real police, I can tell so much, will come without notice.
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Source: Krone
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