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In a nutshell: The FBI has issued a warning for anyone who likes to take explicit photos (i.e., nudes) of themselves. Hackers are targeting both adult and underage users by compromising their social media and personal accounts to steal these images and sell them on criminal marketplaces – and they often include details about the victims.
The FBI's warning concerns what it calls sexual exploitation actors. These criminals target specific people they are interested in, who may be strangers or known to them, as well as opportunistic victims. Once inside an account, they search for sexually explicit photos and videos, steal them without the owner's knowledge, and share them in community forums or sell them through illicit marketplaces.
Making an already nightmarish situation worse, the stolen content is often accompanied by personally identifiable information such as the victim's name, date of birth, email address, phone number, and social media username. This can lead to repeated victimization through harassment, stalking, sextortion, and other targeted attacks. Some criminals even advertise the stolen material through the victim's own social media account.
