Cyber security experts and researchers have confirmed that they have received many requests for help in dealing with extortion and blackmail. The cases were so serious that some of the young men had tried to commit suicide. Mohammed Al-Sariei, a security researcher, said that blackmail and extortion were greatly on the increase due to modern technology. “Most of the victims are young men using social networking sites such as Facebook and Skype,” he said. He said that last year he had received 278 requests from young Saudi men who were subjected to extortion by girls from North Africa. “The extortion was the result of indecent sexual chats recorded without the knowledge of the men,” he said. “They received threats of those recordings being made public on social media if they did not pay large amounts of money.” The girls threatened to publish the recordings on the accounts of their friends and relatives if the men did not pay and the men did not want to face a scandal. Ahmad Al-Saad, a social worker, said blackmail and extortion cases involving men and women had spread widely because of of social media. He told the story of one young man who had sought his help.
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