If your friend had a disgruntled ex GF that sent you naked pics of your buddy. Would you think any less of him? Or would you be more likely to think less of the ex GF?
Scams tend to be low-effort, shotgun-approach style. Like the calls you mention, as soon as you blow them off they can immediately move on to the next one. That way if only 0.01% of people fall for it, it’s still worth the time investment.
The way OP describes the situation, it seems like this person put in a more significant time investment, since they set up this Skype session and presumably spent some time getting to know one another. That’s too much time to spend on such a ridiculous scam that’s not likely to work, and plus the nature of the scam is so ridiculous that it just doesn’t quite ring true to me.
Any video she sends can easily be discredited. The video will be either:
- A bad CGI video where your head is superimposed on someone else’s body
- A video where clips alternate between your video chats with her and masturbation scenes where all you see is the naughty bits.
If it’s the first case, it will look so awful that no one will believe it. If it’s the second case, the context should make it clear that the video is total fiction. She’ll have a video where you’re saying “What’s the weather like where you are? fap fap fap We should go get dinner fap fap fap Do you like dogs or cats more? fap fap fap” Unless she really does have a full body shot of you having a good time, the video won’t convince anyone.
You could just ask to see the video first and judge for yourself. That’ll call her bluff.
“Before I send you the money I want to make sure it’s believable. Send it to me first and I’ll decide then”. When she balks at that and says “What? No! The video is, like, super good! Like, totally real and stuff” You can blow her off.
Well not literally
This is the point I wanted to make.
IMO, if video Photoshop was even close to believable, we could have hardcore porn of any actress. It wouldn’t be legal, but you know trekkies would pay big money for black market video featuring 7of 9 doing Picard and Worf.
In situations like this, I ask myself, “What would Keyser Soze do?”
Film yourself masturbating, then send it to everyone you know. See how well her blackmail threat works then!
Apparently these blackmailers usually target certain countries such as n the Middle East where it would be embarrassing to have a wank video published. I read an article somewhere about them getting people to jerk off and then they blackmail them.
The more you think about it, the dumber it is.
She says “Gimme money” and you say no. Then she… spends hours making a convincing video for free? Then I guess she has to show it to you first because if she just sends it to your mom she’s effectively shot the hostage and isn’t going to get paid anyway.
“Pay me!”
“No!”
“Pay me or I’ll do hours worth of work and ask you to pay me again!”
If you were older, you might appreciate the favor this person is doing for you. When you reach a certain age, it might be helpful to be able to show “proof of performance” in order to secure that first date.
What does that have to do with the embarrassment of my friend? People, other than everyone who posts here apparently, get embarrassed and self conscious about things like sex and nudity. It’s unbelievable I know but some people don’t want videos of them masterbating sent to their auntie or their kids kindergarten teacher. Hoomans are strange.
That’s why it’s brilliant, it’s a win-win. I get to force her to make the video and get the satisfaction of saying “nope, that ain’t me”.
I’ll bet they do something strange, like the lefty thing. Or maybe they have a really goofy “O” face.
I haven’t read the whole thread yet so I’m sure others have already commented on this but, it’s very difficult to make a fake video like that and have it look at all realistic. The person would need access to fairly high-end software and a production person with extensive knowledge/experience of creating such a work.
Wouldn’t it be a violation of federal law? Some kind of interstate commerce thing (even if she is physically in the same state)?
ETA: regarding the difficulty of making a convincing fake video: I suppose it would be much easier to make a convincing fake STILL with a screen grab from the video… but it would still not be easy.
That sounds a lot more plausible than the OP’s story. OP jerked off on video and got blackmailed, but was too embarrassed to admit it. So after reading a thread here on the SDMB (which he links in the OP) about the possibility of future technologies potentially faking video, he concocts a ridiculous story, hoping to save face while still getting practical advice for the real situation.
Personally I’d tell them to go for it, but I’ve also got a tattoo that would show up in any porn starring me so the fake would be easy to disprove.
My guess is that she/they would try splicing together footage from your Skype session with some amateur video available by the gigabyte on pornhub and try to pass it off as real.
You might try bluffing and tell her that without your tattoo in the video there’s no way anyone would believe it.
And frankly, if all she needed was his face and she already found his Facebook, why would she need to set him up to do a video w/ her? And why wouldn’t she have made strangely sexy requests in the video rather than tame chat in order to get the right expressions for faking a masturbation video?
As others suspect, I also think he likely did masturbate on video w/ her encouragement and that’s what she’s using in her attempt to blackmail him. This may well be her full-time job, and from another country so she can’t be busted for it.
I understand that sounds more plausible - and if I were you or **Nawth Chucka ** I’d suspect the same too - but that is simply not what happened. Didn’t take off my clothes, didn’t show my cock, etc.
“Your son/employee/neighbor is the sort of person who emails women he just met with unwanted explicit video of himself performing sexual acts. I’m sorry to send this lewd material to you, but I didn’t want to go to the police over this harassment since I think he just needs help for his psychological problem…”
This may not be much consolation, but she was always going to do this to you given the chance. It’s not that she decided you’re a sucker after getting to know you, it’s that she’s a con artist who’s skillful at what she does.