Introduction

There are many definitions affiliated with the word extortion, as per various English scholars. The most prominent, as per the oxford dictionary, is to obtain something forcefully or by threats, especially money. It could also be when a person in an official position takes advantage of their capacity to illegally acquire money, property, patronage, and such things. But generally speaking, whenever one uses threats to obtain a valuable thing, be it money, an advantage, an acquittance, or immunity of whichever description, then it means they can be charged with extortion (Rose-Ackerman, 2010). As technology advances, so do crimes such as extortion because it provides people with a broader range of means by which they can extort money and other valuable items from others. Cybercrimes have proven to be a great challenge over the years. This paper discusses extortion and, more significantly, how computers and other digital devices have aided extortion.

Body

Extortion is categorized as a theft crime. It is punishable by law, and one can be incarcerated for up to fifteen years because of extortion. Besides incarceration, one could have additional charges like fines or victim restitution. Like any other crime, extortion has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in court for one to be convicted of the crime. For this to happen, the prosecutor has to prove two main things. One is the use of actual force, violence, or threatening acts that instill fear. The second thing is proving that these acts were committed for obtaining money or property (Rose-Ackerman, 2010). Therefore, weighty evidence like maybe a voice recording is required to prove a crime like extortion. A civil lawsuit can result in extortion crime in some states for damages accounted for under tort law. In this case, one has to prove that the extortion led to damage or injury to the complainant.

There is a thin line between extortion and blackmail. Blackmail is where people use certain leverage to coerce another person into giving in to their demands. It is equally charged as a theft crime or sometimes as a felony but could also be a form of extortion. The only difference is extortion involves threats of violence, where the victim’s life or property is threatened by violence (Rose-Ackerman, 2010). The involvement of violence in extortion, unlike blackmail, makes its punishment far more severe. Other forms of extortion include robbery, which is said to be the simplest form of extortion. Other types of threats besides violence to a person and damage of property can be categorized as extortion. These include threatening someone with arrest or imprisonment, testifying against them, denying one a service or money, and even refusing to testify in defense of someone when you are in a capacity to.

Cybercrimes are often charged as a crime on their own. However, when they are involved in extorting something of value or delivering threats, they are charged as an extortion crime. Recently Cyber extortion has been categorized as a form of extortion. Cyber extortion is described as computers to contact the target audience (Hampton & Baig,2015). One of the most common ways by which cyber extortion is done is by the use of malware. A particular type of malware called ransomware is installed into a person’s computer, and it can be done remotely. The ransomware encrypts the data stored in the machine or essential files in the machine. The attacker then demands money or any other form of payment from the owner to give up the decryption code or key (Hampton & Baig,2015).

Denial of service attacks can also be used for extortion. In this case, a cyber-criminal attacks server in an institution or a business computer network. They flood the network such that it cannot complete any of the required tasks unless their demands are met. They can equally attack the network and shut it down, and they will end the attack only when their demands are met (Hampton & Baig,2015). According to the risk management magazine, the crimes mentioned above rank as the most proficient cybercrimes. Because shutting down a network for an entire business organization or enterprise can cause a lot of damage and losses to the organization. Therefore, when such an attack is launched on an organization, they often prefer to pay up and continue their business as they try to upgrade the security of their system and locate the attackers. What makes cyber crimes and cyber extortion tough to deal with is locating the IP address that launched the attack is complex and requires top-grade surveillance and forensics (Hampton & Baig, 2015). Other ways in which cyber extortion can be carried out is through leaking important information that does not belong to you to the public or other organizations, especially financial information. It also involves threatening to leak someone’s private information to extort something from them. Among the most commonly committed crimes are identity theft and theft of intellectual property as well.

Cybercriminals are growing more intelligent by the minute and finding more sophisticated ways to extort from innocent people. It is a growing problem, but truthfully it has not been addressed as it ought to so far. One brilliant example of the extent to which cyber extortion has been occurring is a breach that occurred at the United States Internal Revenue Service in the year 2015 (Anders, 2015). Through an online program called ‘Get transcript” by IRS, the attackers managed to access the tax history of the various people whose details were exposed (Anders, 2015). Hackers managed to steal about seven hundred thousand social security numbers of various citizens and other sensitive information. The social security numbers were used for fraudulent acts. The challenge, especially to IRS, has been immense and has stretched out for a long. People often use stolen numbers to file for refunds (Anders, 2015). Extortionists have found very many brilliant ways to utilize the internet. Even though mobile phone messages, or social media platforms, catfished identities are often used to lure people into blackmail and threats of various manners.

Various measures have been taken in an attempt to curb extortion in our society. The various States have their laws implemented to deal with this problem. The Hobbs Act of 1946 is the legal policy implemented against acts of extortion. The policy prevents both actual and attempted robbery or extortion that affects both interstate or foreign commerce (Yarbrough, 1995). The act responds to various factors to prove whether one has violated the Hobbs act. Cases of corruption against the public or other commercial disputes have often been connected using the statute of the Hobbs Act. A violation of the Hobbs Act extortion has to be proven beyond reasonable doubt for any charges to be implemented.

Conclusion

Extortion is a crime that should be taken seriously and dealt with amicably. It causes a lot of losses and damage to property and results in a lot of psychological and emotional trauma, especially when one's critical and private information is at risk. Cyber extortion is increasingly becoming a dire threat to many people because the consequences are severe, and the crime is not very easy to prove. Locating cybercriminals is also very hard because of the use of stolen identities and stolen machines. Abuse of power to extort resources is also a great challenge because it cripples the economy and contributes to endless social injustice and corruption cases. It is a plea that resources be put in place to deal with cyber crimes and find a way of minimizing extortion crimes because if things are left as they are, so much damage is going to be caused to a lot of people because of extortion.