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Palestinian women increasingly targeted online

The rise in social media in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been accompanied by an increase in cybercrime, but many women are reluctant to report it.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank — According to Palestinian police reports from Dec. 7, 2015, a 25-year-old woman, A. B., from Hebron fell victim to Internet blackmail, when a young man from a city in the northern West Bank hacked into her Facebook account, stole private photos of her and threatened to publish them. The woman was forced to pay him 10,000 shekels ($2,500) and 250 grams of gold in the hope that he would not make her photos public. The man threatened her until she ran out of money and went to the police cybercrimes unit, which followed up on the case and arrested the man.

Louay Erzikat, official spokesperson for the Palestinian police, told Al-Monitor, “Cybercrimes are on the rise in Palestine, especially in light of technological developments, the Internet and social networking sites. Around 1,020 cybercrimes were registered in 2015 in Hebron, the most populous area in the West Bank, compared to 922 in 2014.” 

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