Safer Social Media: Minimizing Blackmail Risks and Reviewing Key Settings

Social media has become an inseparable part of our daily lives. It’s transformed the way we connect, share, and interact with the world. We spend hours scrolling through feeds, chatting with friends, and posting about our day.

Platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter offer endless opportunities for engagement, but not without risk. Social media’s very public nature provides the perfect vehicle for blackmail and other scams. Staying safe online requires a proactive approach to security and being cautious about what you share.

Social media blackmail occurs when someone threatens to release private or embarrassing information if certain demands aren’t met, typically money. The most common form of blackmail is sextortion, when the content is of a sexual nature.

To stay safe online, it’s important to understand the risks of online blackmail and how to choose safe platforms to protect your reputation. Let’s explore how to safely navigate social media to ensure a positive experience online.

Understanding Social Media Blackmail

Social media blackmail can happen to all ages and genders. It doesn’t discriminate by income, background, or hobbies. Anyone active on social media is a potential victim.

Common Blackmail Tactics

Scammers can trick you into sharing compromising photos, videos, and personal information. They can be highly manipulative in their tactics and exploit both public and private sharing features of social media apps. They usually are not who they say they are and create fake profiles with stolen photos and other content to lure you in.

Vulnerability Factors

It’s far too easy and tempting to overshare personal information on social media. It’s natural to want to connect with others, and we feel sharing brings us together. Cybercriminals manipulate this desire by tricking us into sharing too much. They use social engineering and other tactics to get us to share sensitive content, which can be used as fodder for blackmail on social media apps.

To stay safe on social media, be careful what you share on public accounts. Anything shared on a public account can be compromised by a bad actor. Restrict sensitive data to private accounts to protect your identity and stay safe online. Avoid posting names, phone numbers, addresses, school and work locations, and other sensitive information as text or in a photo.

The Impact of Social Media Blackmail

Blackmail on social media can have devastating emotional, social, and professional consequences. It can inflict severe emotional distress and anxiety and cause reputational harm to your career and business. That’s why it is critical to take a proactive approach to prevent online blackmail and maintain a safe presence on all social media accounts.

It is also crucial to report instances of online blackmail to social media platforms, the police, and the IC3. It’s the only way cybercriminals can be held accountable and prevented from carrying out their heinous crimes. A police report begins the process of prosecuting the scammer.

How to Choose Safer Social Media Platforms

When it comes to privacy and safety, not all social media platforms are created equal. Some are safer than others due to factors like stronger privacy settings, robust security measures, and better community moderation policies that combat harmful content and behavior. For better online safety, choose apps that prioritize the security of the user over advertising spend.

Here are a few points to keep in mind.

End-to-End Encryption

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) helps protect against hacking and data breaches. It ensures that only authorized parties can access your content and delivers a robust layer of security that’s difficult for threat actors to compromise. E2EE is essential for private messaging.

Signal and WhatsApp use E2EE by default for all person-to-person and group chats, as well as voice and video. Here are a few factors to consider:

• If you message a business account on WhatsApp, the message is not encrypted. Business accounts are clearly marked.
• WhatsApp collects user metadata and has optional E2EE for cloud backups.
• WhatsApp’s cloud-source nature raises security concerns despite strong encryption.
• Signal is more privacy-focused because it collects minimal metadata, is fully open-sourced, and offers encrypted local backups and self-destructing messages.

Ephemeral Messaging

Ephemeral messaging is a feature in some social media apps like Snapchat and the disappearing message feature of WhatsApp where messages automatically disappear after a set time. It protects privacy by preventing sensitive data from being permanently stored.

Despite its temporary nature, ephemeral messages are nonetheless susceptible to online blackmail. Scammers can take screenshots or videos of messages and other content before they disappear and save a permanent copy.

Privacy-Focused Platforms

Apps like Signal, Telegram, Briar, and Bluesky have robust privacy settings and features, prioritizing user data control and encryption over data sharing.

• Signal is a popular choice for secure communication thanks to ETEE for messages and calls.
• Telegram offers ETEE for “Secret Chats” and allows users to control who can see privacy and data.
• Briar prioritizes user privacy and security with open-sourced technology and ETEE.
• Bluesky is an open-sourced decentralized platform that provides users greater control over their data and experience.

Exercise Caution with These Platforms

Social media platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram require extra caution because of their core privacy risks, including data collection and targeted advertising. These apps track user behavior and are susceptible to security breaches. They also have weak community moderation policies, which can lead to abuse.

Key Items to Review on Social Media Accounts

Here are a few factors to review to ensure a safer social media experience.

Privacy Settings

Limit the visibility of posts, photos, and personal information. For a safer social media experience, be sure to do the following:

• Set profile to private.
• Limit post visibility to friends or specific groups instead of public.
• Enable end-to-end encryption if available (WhatsApp, Messenger Secret Chats, Signal).

Review Friend/Follower Lists

It’s a good idea to periodically go through your friends and followers lists and remove anyone you don’t know. For suspicious or unknown contacts, visit their profile and click “unfriend” or “remove.”

Practice Safe Content Sharing Practices on Social Media

Oversharing on social media can lead to privacy risks, identity theft, and online blackmail. Be careful what you post and share to avoid compromise.

Be sure to do the following:

• Blur or hide sensitive details in photos or videos such as IDs, addresses, and license plates.
• Avoid posting real-time locations.
• Never share full birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, or financial details.
• Limit sharing about children.

Limit Third-Party App Permissions

Many social media platforms allow third-party apps to access data. To stay safe on social media, limit how much data these apps can access. This will protect your privacy and prevent unauthorized access to your data.

Here’s how to review and revoke third-party permissions on most social media platforms:

1. Click on Settings.
2. Select Security & Privacy.
3. Choose Connected Apps or Third-Party Permissions.
4. Review the list of apps that have access to your account and deselect the ones you want to remove.
5. Click Remove/Disconnect/Revoke Access for apps you no longer use.

You should repeat this process every few months.

Prevention and Protection Strategies

The best way to stay safer on social media is to prevent compromise proactively. Avoid oversharing personal details online, including:

• Vacation details
• Your child’s school
• Details to security questions
• Financial information
• Work details
• Real-time location

Be Cautious of Unknown Contacts

Scammers will create fake profiles to trick you into sharing sensitive information or content that could be used for social media blackmail. Always be cautious that a profile might not be who they say they are.

Here are some signs of a fake profile:

• The profile picture looks fake or too perfect.
• Low or unusual engagement.
• Suspicious messages or requests
• The username looks random or mismatched.
• Bad grammar, awkward phrasing, generic responses.

Always verify the identity of new contacts to ensure they are legitimate.

Use Strong Passwords and 2FA

Keep your account secure with strong, unique passwords backed by two-factor authentication (2FA). Ensure each password contains several numbers, at least one capital letter, and special characters. Enable 2FA to prevent hacking.

Maintaining strong account security protects your account from compromise and delivers a safer social media experience.

Regularly Review Account Activity

Monitoring your social media activity helps detect unauthorized access, prevent hacking, and protect your personal data.

• Review login activity or active settings sessions in the settings and security section of the app.
• Enable login alerts and notifications to receive notifications when a new device logs in.
• Periodically review your email, phone number, password, and recovery options to ensure they haven’t changed.
• Look at recent posts, messages, or friend requests to detect suspicious activity.

How to Report Social Media Blackmail and Seek Help

If you have been a victim of social media blackmail, it is critical to report the crime to platform administrators and law enforcement. It’s the only way these criminals can be held accountable and brought to justice.

Report Social Media Blackmail to Platform Administrators

It’s important to report online blackmail to social media administrators so they can take steps to suspend the attacker’s account.

How to report online blackmail to administrators:

1. Go to the profile, post, Tweet, or message you’d like to report.
2. Click on the “…” and select “Report”
3. Choose the reason for the report.
4. Provide details.
5. Submit the report.

Report to Law Enforcement

It is crucial to report social media blackmail to law enforcement to create a paper trail that can be used to bring your attacker to justice. Report the crime to local police as well as the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3),

Social media blackmail is a serious crime that carries as much as 20 years in prison under the Hobbs Act.

Digital Investigation Inc. Can Help

If you’ve been a victim of social media blackmail, Digital Investigation Inc. can help. Our cyber professionals can use digital tracing to locate and identify your blackmailer. We can use this information to help stop the online blackmail so they never contact you again.

You don’t need to face this alone. Professional assistance can help you achieve the best possible outcome so this doesn’t happen again. Contact our Blackmail Helpline today.