The National Crime Agency are today warning of a rise in 'sextortion' cases online. Cases which have so far, see at least four men take their own lives.
What happening is this; criminals are making connections with unsuspecting people online - often using images or videos of young, attractive women as bait. They are then asking the victims to perform sex acts in front of their webcam before informing them that their webcam has been hacked and, unless the victim pays up in full, the images and videos will be shared with everyone they know.
They've released the below video by way of warning.
Horrifying stuff no? Worst still, the NCA are reporting that at least four suicides have been linked to these crimes.
The most susceptible group of people are young men between 21 and 30. There's also a large number of victims aged between 11 and 20. So far in 2016, there have been 864 reported cases of 'financially motivated webcam blackmail' - over double from 2015. Police believe the actual number of cases may be way higher.
Those that have watched the most recent season of Black Mirror will recall the similarities this story has with episode three - Shut Up and Dance, which features a teenager called Kenny who is forced to complete a series of ever-worsening tasks after his webcam is hacked.
Obviously, being Black Mirror, there's a lot more to the story than that but it's yet another case of Charlie Brooker's show translating into the real world. Just last month, the Chinese government were accused of considering a 'points system' to rate it's citizens based on data collected from their online interactions - similar to the system in episode one Nosedive. Failure to accumulate enough points could have impact on Chinese citizens' rights to travel overseas and/or borrow money.
The NCA for their part are doing their best to advise potential victims of sextortion how to avoid the crime and what the best course of action to take is if you do fall prey.
'Don't pay and don't panic,' advises Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt, the National Police Chiefs' Council Lead for Kidnap and Extortion and Adult Sexual Offences. 'Call us for help... We want to reassure victims that the police with take reports seriously. Each report will be dealt with in confidence and with no judgement made.... Your safety and welfare will be at the heart of our investigations.'
Webcam hacking isn't anything new, and it's not just men that are victims. Back in 2014, the FBI cracked down on a $40 piece of widely available software called Blackshades RAT which was used to infect 500,000 computers in 100 countries to remotely gain control of unsuspecting individuals computers - including the webcam.
The former Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf found herself a victim of sextortion thanks to former classmate Jared James Abrahams who tried to sell photos of Cassidy gained illegally from her computeter in 2013. In 2015, Stefan Rigo, from Leeds, was found guilty of spying on 14 individuals through their webcams, seven of whom he knew personally.
What's clear from today's news is that despite the crackdown, the problem is still growing. Just three months ago, even FBI Director James Comey recommended you make like Mark Zuckerberg and cover your webcam with tape.
For more information on avoiding sextortion or, what to do if you've become a victim, head to the National Crime Agency's website for more information on their campaign.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.