Featured Image Credit: John Williams/Alamy Devilmaya/Alamy
Topics: True Crime, TikTok, Viral, Crime
Dominic Smithers
Topics: True Crime, TikTok, Viral, Crime
A sickening tale from the dark web is serving as a warning to people about the dangers of sending nudes. Have a listen:
People often think that just because they're sending a pic to a boyfriend or girlfriend, it's totally safe. I mean, it's only going to them, right?
Well, as many have found in the past, having fallen victim to revenge porn, the internet is basically the wild west, and information, no matter how personal or private, is up for grabs.
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Take the recently-resurfaced story of Pink Meth, for example.
It originally began life as a regular website, before the nefarious nature of its workings led to it migrating onto the dark web.
It essentially acted as a host site, paying people for nudes and compromising images of their exes. But it also linked victims' contact information to their images, including Facebook profiles and even, in some cases, their addresses – a practice known as doxxing.
And if someone wanted to have their image removed, they had to write to Pink Meth, providing evidence that they were under age or the information was stolen; they were also encouraged to explain how they think the photo made its way onto the site.
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Warning their followers about the dangers of the dark web and sending nudes, TikTok account @youtilla said: "Pink Meth had thousands of women on this website who fell victim to this.
"There is no age and no gender that is safe from sextortion. Please be careful on who you send your information to online, and stay safe."
Eventually, in 2014, the site was shut down following a joint investigation by Europol, the FBI, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The site was very similar to isanyoneup.com, which was started by Hunter Moore.
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It also involved people sending in nudes of their former partners, with their social media accounts linked for added embarrassment.
Like Pink Meth, though, it too was eventually shut down after Moore was tricked into selling it to an anti-bullying charity.
In 2013, the charity's founder, James McGibney, won a $250,000 (£213,000) defamation case after Moore called him a 'paedophile' and threatened to rape his wife.
Moore's Twitter account was also taken down, and in 2015 he pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft and aiding and abetting in the unauthorised access of a computer and was sentenced to just two and a half years in prison.
He was also banned from social media by the judge.