Police in Philippines have arrested 58 suspected members who used online extortion of sexual information or images to cyberblackmail hundreds of people in at least six countries, Interpol announced Friday.
Among the ones duped into exposing themselves in front of webcams was a Scottish teenager who jumped to his death in 2013 after being blackmailed. According to CNN, three people accused of blackmailing the teenager were among those arrested Wednesday and Thursday, the France-based international police organization said.
After tricking victims into exposing their bodies or having cybersex, the syndicate would secretly record them and later threaten to send the videos to their relatives and friends unless they paid $500 to $2,000, said the Philippines national police chief, Alan Purisima.
"Daniel Perry was reportedly the victim of blackmailers who recorded his video-chat interactions with a person he thought was an American girl his own age," CNN reported. "The blackmailers then threatened to show the footage to his family if he didn't pay up, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported at the time."
According to Interpol, the blackmail scheme operated "on an almost industrial scale from call centre-style offices."
Cash, cell phones, and days off were some of the incentives that the alleged blackmailers were given for completing financial goals, Interpol said. They were also provided with training.
Apart from Asia-based networks, similar networks based in Africa demanded between $500 and $15,000 by targeting European victims, Interpol said.
"The scale of these sextortion networks is massive, and run with just one goal in mind: to make money regardless of the terrible emotional damage they inflict on their victims," Sanjay Virmani, director of Interpol's Digital Crime Center, said in a statement.
The Interpol-coordinated investigation traced victims of the alleged blackmail scheme to Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States and Hong Kong, CNN reported.
Investigators found potential victims in Australia, Korea and Malaysia, Interpol said.
