By: Natasha Archary
Arthur Fraser filing criminal charges against President Cyril Ramaphosa has opened up the discussion on what people who have information on you can mean for your reputation.
Whether or not they’re dangling the information or whatever sordid details there is against you in a bid to just threaten you or keeping it as leverage, what can you do if you’re being blackmailed?
The important point to remember is that exploitation is serious and it is a criminal offence, that is classified as a common law crime.
The term blackmail is loosely used to describe when you’re being asked to do something you don’t want to do and you’re being threatened with adverse consequences.
As an example, “If you don’t sleep with me, I’m going to share all our sexy text messages to social media and expose you.”
LISTEN: Kaya Drive listeners share the time they were blackmailed
Can you protect yourself?
The first thing to be mindful of if you’re being blackmailed is that paying or going through with your exploiter’s demands doesn’t guarantee they stop harassing you.
Next, it’s important to remember not to take matters into your own hands. In more serious blackmailing cases, the person being blackmailed will often resort to desperate measures to escape the extreme demands being made.
High-profiled people who face blackmail, either have to pay large sums of money or arrange favours for their blackmailer, often at their own expense.
You may not like the idea of informing the police of your blackmail situation but it is quite possibly one of the only ways to get a blackmailer to back of.
Unless, the information this person has on you is a crime itself which you don’t want exposed.
Revenge porn
One of the most common forms of blackmail is when an ex-partner threatens to share your explicit pictures or videos when you end a relationship with them.
Revenge porn is a criminal offence with possible jail time of up to three years and/or a fine for distributing content that is explicit in nature (ie nudity or pornographic) without the consent of the person involved.
So, if you’re being exploited in this way, it is advisable that you file a criminal charge and follow the legal process.
Also read: Revenge porn: is nothing sacred anymore?
