Case studies from different European countries
Žaneta
Sexting / Czech Rebublic
Žaneta, ein 15 jähriges Mädchen aus Tschechien, fand über eine Online-Community einen Freund, der sie verstand und dem sie vertraute. Leider wurde aus dem engen Verhältnis ein Alptraum, der nun von der Polizei weiterverfolgt wird und bis heute nicht beendet ist.
A 15-year-old girl, Žaneta, decided to try out the social network “Gifyo”. She spoke English very well, registered without problems and became active in the community. One day she got to know Michel. Michel was a handsome, slender, black-haired emo fan, 16 years old. He was from France and actively using the network “Gifyo”, as did Žaneta. On his profile he regularly published different photos; on some photos he was half naked. He also sent Žaneta the link to his Facebook profile. Michel began to communicate with Žaneta. They started to exchange ever more intimate photos. One day, Žaneta sent him her own “topless” photo, on which also her face was recognizable.
Michel demanded more photos from her. Žaneta refused. Suddenly the communication changed: Michel threatened to hack her Facebook profile and to contact her parents and her friends if she didn’t send him more photos. He continued to threaten her to publish the photos on erotic websites and to forward them also to her friends. Žaneta did not believe him! That's why he published the first three photos on a public cloud storage - with limited access. This made it clear that Michel's blackmail would become ever more intense.
Žaneta contacted the E-Bezpečí office. The "E-Bezpečí" team, in collaboration with the team "Seznam.cz for online security" analyzed the case. The results showed that Michels profiles were fake - all photos came from foreign emo portals. The IP addresses he used were not French but from other countries and are often used for spam- shipping. Žaneta stopped communicating with Michel.
Michel tried to attack her Facebook profile. He was still on Žaneta`s friend list and hence had access to all her friends. He saved the list and attacked the account again. He did not succeed in finding out their login details, and the account was automatically disabled. Žaneta got an email informing her that someone was trying to log into her account. She changed her password and blocked Michel, who lost access to her profile.
Throughout the investigation, the teams of the counseling centers stayed in contact with Žaneta. She was really scared that the photos would be misused; she did not dare to go to the police with the blackmail or to confide in her parents. She did not want her parents to find out anything about the photos. Every day she was afraid that the attacker would send a message to her parents. She felt that he had power over her.
Michel tried to blackmail Žaneta via Skype, e-mail and other internet services. The attempts are still taking place today. The police is now dealing with the case.