Hacker News Reader

Comment by andersa | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand what would motivate someone to ever send an explicit photo of themselves to a stranger. The whole premise of this scam makes no sense. Like, is this not the most basic of the basics of online safety?

View on HN

The short answer is horniness. They are hoping to get some. And indeed, as I understand it, they've received what they think are explicit photos of someone else, so they believe they are in a reciprocal context.

If people were all that good at being rational about safety in the face of possible sexytimes, it's true this wouldn't happen. And we wouldn't have STDs or unintended pregnancies, either. But as the man says, life finds a way.

To add to the fact, these are teenagers. They already aren't well known for rational thought or low levels of horniness.

The basic rule of online safety is not to meet people from the internet IRL and even if, never to get into their cars. And yet, the business of calling strangers over the internet specifically to get into their cars somehow grew into a 200 billion dollar industry. Strange world, isn't it.

Because there is a corporate third party that can identify both the driver and the customer. Moreso the driver than the customer, but then again the driver can have cameras in the vehicle and doesn't carry cash like a taxi does, so they are not in any significant danger either.

online dating also depends on meeting people IRL. afaik, my okcupid profile was not tied to a real identity for most of the time.

That hasn't stopped uber and Lyft drivers raping women.

You go on a dating app, a girl responds with her nudes and you send yours. It turns out it was a guy looking to extort you.

This happened to my son… they had a couple hundred in Apple gift cards out of him before we found out and stopped it

> You go on a dating app, a girl responds with her nudes

My first assumption would be the "girl" is a bot and the image generated by AI until proven otherwise, i.e. by meeting up at a public location and seeing it's a real person from my country. Am I too paranoid? It sure feels like the dead internet theory is just about to get real and we should act accordingly.

This (and your grandparent comment) seem like such an unhelpful line of commentary. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt but the vibe I get from those two comments is: "I wouldn't fall for it, therefore other people's kids should know better. It's so obvious!".

People who are exposed to this line of thinking will now be doubly ashamed if they fall for this, making them even less likely to ask for help.

There's a real world parallel in Search and Rescue operations that I'm personally familiar with: https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2021/01/17/shaming-those-who-n...

> a girl responds with her nudes and you send yours

But... WHY?! You're not The Rock. Unless you're ripped and/or packing, the chances of your "nudes" sent in reply scaring the recipient away are pretty high.

It's not just teenagers, my friend's brother fell prey to this. His life is one ongoing mental health crisis. These people are truly the scum of the earth, their scam only works on vulnerable people by design. Disgusting.

> It's not just teenagers,

No. Apparently it also happens with british Member of Parliament. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/04/senior-tory...

To be fair the scammers did lead him on with an unsolicited picture of a tractor sans engine cover.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com