Dating Applications: A Honeypot for Sextortion Victims
Open accessAbstract
Perpetrators often have easy access to victims via widely used social media networks, such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook. Nowadays, dating applications have provided one more platform where sextortionists identify potential victims and lure them into extortion and victimization. Limited research and media coverage has revealed that sextortion can cause significant harm, with victims reporting negative psychological consequences, such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Many empirical findings arise from explorations of webcam sextortion, with limited literature examining sextortion in social media platforms, and particularly online dating sites. In the current, exploratory study, we examine these modern trends directly via an online survey of 102 participants. Overall, 62.7% had been sextorted by another dating application user, and 25.5% experienced failed attempts of sextortion by another dating application user. Results uniquely showed that Tinder, as well as Snapchat, are often used as fishing platforms for identifying sextortion victims. Furthermore, sextortion could be successfully predicted if individuals perceived that the perpetrator “seemed genuinely interested,” demonstrating how online dating platforms which specifically target those seeking romantic connections provide an ideal mechanism for perpetrators to fish for victims.
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More recent research not included in the review suggests that women who use video chatting services, messaging applications, and social media platforms are more likely to be victimized by sextortion compared to men.
“For instance, more recent research (not included in this review) suggests that women who use video chatting services, messaging applications, and social media platforms are more likely to be victimized by sextortion compared to men (Tavakoli et al., 2024).”
From Sextortion: A Scoping Review (2025) · cites this paper as Tavakoli et al., 2024
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- Authors
- Tavakoli, H., Tzani, C., Ioannou, M., Williams, T. J. V., Drouin, M., & Fletcher, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Huddersfield (GB)
- University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, UK
- Purdue University Fort Wayne (US)
- Corresponding author
- Tzani, Calli
- Venue
- Deviant Behavior
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2024-02-14
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1655-1666
- ISSN
- 0163-9625 (ISSN-L)
- 1521-0456
- OpenAlex
- W4391810203
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4
- FWCI
- 2.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Deviant Behavior (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Huddersfield Research Portal (University of Huddersfield) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- conducting this study
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Stalking, Cyberstalking, and Harassment
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies
- Keywords
- sextortion, dating apps, victimization, Tinder, Snapchat, social media, cyber victimization
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