Porn Bots: this is how sex scammers operate on social networks

What are sex bots?

A porn bot, or sex bot, is a fake profile created by scammers on a social network with the aim of interacting with users to convince them to visit another website – with promises of adult content. The goal for the scammer is for the user to sign up for these platforms by entering their personal data and, if possible, their bank card.

The main victims are usually young women, who suffer identity and photo theft for the creation of these profiles, usually for sexual purposes. On the other hand, the tendency is for men to steal their account or identity to offer cryptocurrencies.

In addition, users who access the links and enter their information are victims of phishing and scams.

Satnam Narang, a senior research engineer at Tenable, explains that these pages often belong to affiliate programs. For example, one of these programs offers hundreds of choices of websites to which the scammer has to direct the user. For each person who manages to register on these pages, you can earn between one and three dollars; but if you also enter your credit card, the amount can be up to 60 dollars.

Pornbots are not exclusive to Instagram and are present on all social networks. Narang even mentions that they are usually located in the social network that is “in fashion”. They are currently found more frequently on the Meta social network, as fake profiles, and on TikTok through comments on videos.

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porn bot trends

Porn bots are not a new or recent phenomenon and Narang indicates that they have been around for around a decade. For this reason, over the years they have evolved their way of interacting with users to defraud them.

For example, a few years ago sex bots approached users on Instagram by sending them direct messages. Although it is still one of the techniques, it is no longer so common today.

Now, to capture attention, these types of automated accounts see the stories of the user. Thus, when the person sees an unknown profile, with images and a provocative description, he enters to see her story, begins to interact with her and will seek to convince him to continue with the conversation or obtain more content on another page.

They are also usually profiles without photos, but with recent stories, to make it appear that they are active.

Nanrang also shares that these profiles take a couple of hours to answer. This in order that they do not appear to be automated responses. But, to continue the conversation, they invite users to migrate to other websites – where information theft will take place. “Websites are only designed to make you want to click on them and that’s why they use familiar names,” such as Callingfans instead of OnlyFans.

What to do if your identity is stolen to create a porn bot?

Social networks know about this phenomenon and, although they have not been able to completely stop the creation of this type of bot, they have tried to reduce the risks involved.

According to the latest Meta Community Standards Enforcement Report, from April to June 2022, 1.4 billion fake accounts were removed on Facebook globally, 99.7% of them before they were reported by people.

“We removed 10.3 million content with adult nudity and sexual activity on Instagram globally, 94.3% of these before they were reported by people,” says the technology.

Although the platforms cannot control what happens on other links, the privacy policies They heavily penalize identity theft. However, it is common for victims not to report the correct action. For example, some of the affected people often indicate in the report that they are posting “inappropriate content”.

For this, it is important report the action as identity theft. On Instagram, the steps to follow are: Report / Report account / Pretend to be someone else.

In turn, Meta collaborates with civil associations that provide psychological and legal support in case of having been the victim of a porn bot. One of them is Baja California Digital Defenders a group that provides completely free support in case you have been the victim of a porn bot or any other digital threat with a gender focus.

Also, in case intimate images have been leaked and you are afraid that they will spread, you can stop their circulation on Instagram and Facebook through StopNcii.org which will detect the hash code of the image and stop it from circulating across platforms.

On the other hand, there are actions you can take to reduce the risks of being a victim of a situation like this, in which it is not necessary to make your account private. Some of them include:

1. Control tags: You can choose whether everyone, only those you follow, or none can tag or mention you in a text, comment, or story. Go to ‘Privacy’ within the settings and click on ‘Posts’. In the ‘Allow tags from’ section, choose between ‘Everyone’, ‘People you follow’ or ‘No one’. For mentions, go to ‘Privacy’ and choose ‘Mentions’.
2. Select your group of best friends: You can create a list of best friends and share only the stories you post on Instagram with them. You can add or remove people from the list at any time and they will not be notified for this.
3. Control comments: This is the section where most of the conversations happen. Because of this, it is recommended to hide offensive messages, filter messages by words, delete, disable or block comments from porn bots and choose who can send you messages.
4. Detect fraud: Be careful if a profile asks for money or gift cards; offers job vacancies; Unverified accounts that “represent” large companies, organizations, or public figures; they ask to continue the conversation on a different channel; they claim to have family emergency situations; messages from friends that encourage clicking on suspicious links; accounts with little seniority on Instagram.