Chinese sextortion scammers are flooding Twitter

In May, Wang Zhi’an noticed something odd: Each time he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, his replies would be flooded with sexual spam within minutes. Once, the Chinese investigative journalist-in-exile made a post discussing X’s new monetization policies. A user named Zizizi963, seemingly an attractive young single woman, replied with a photo of her in lingerie and the words, “When will you come to me and mess up my bed?” Zizizi963 was one of several accounts posting sexual messages in Wang’s replies — they all had blue checkmarks, and were granted greater visibility on the platform.

Wang soon learned that these accounts were sextortion scammers. Posing as young, lonely women, they posted sexually suggestive messages on popular posts and invited users to contact them through the Telegram links in their bios. A Shenzhen-based man in his 20s reached out to Wang anonymously after falling victim himself, according to an audio interview between the two that Wang had shared on his podcast. The scammers persuaded the man to download special video-chat software for “safety reasons,” lured him into a chatroom, recorded footage of him unclothed, and then blackmailed him for money. He ended up transferring 200,000 yuan ($27,500) to the scammers to prevent his photos from being leaked.

Since April, after X introduced a new blue-check policy allowing users to buy verified badges, the platform has seen hundreds of newly verified Chinese sextortion accounts, according to Robin Li, founder of online safety software PureTwitter. They prey on Chinese users, harassing the community’s most prominent voices — often political dissidents and influential opinion leaders. The scammer accounts have alienated many users who had turned to the platform as a crucial news source outside of the Great Firewall. 

With over 850,000 followers, Wang uses Twitter as an important space to discuss sensitive political issues and current affairs in China — such as the White Paper movement and the Beiijng flood. He told Rest of World that the sextortion scammers have ruined his experience. “It’s a real pain,” he said. Though he has tried to block the spam accounts one by one, he felt it was like a “never-ending game” because new accounts kept popping up. 

The scammers’ tactics are effective because Chinese users on X are particularly susceptible to online sexual manipulation, according to Runze Ding, assistant professor at Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College. “Adult content is highly regulated and difficult to access within the Great Firewall,” Ding, who studies Chinese sexuality and media, told Rest of World. “As a result, many Chinese users lack social media literacy when it comes to sexual content, which makes them susceptible to sextortion.” 

Liu Chong, a researcher at University of Leeds studying how media impacts Chinese sexuality, believes X’s new blue-check policy enabled the sextortion scammers. “The verified mark gives a new account easily attainable credibility and visibility, things scammers can now afford with only $8 per month,” Liu said.

Murong Xuecun, a famous Chinese writer with 138,000 followers on X, was also targeted by sextortion scammers. He told Rest of World nearly all of his tweets contain sex-related spam in their replies, severely disrupting his use of the platform. “Chinese-language Twitter feels like a bus full of political dissidents pulled up to a red-light district,” he said. 

Murong worries the proliferation of pornographic content would alienate more serious users while stigmatizing those active on the platform. “They distract serious commentators and make meaningful conversations very difficult,” he said, adding that he has already blocked at least 200 spam accounts.

The sextortion accounts have also rattled ordinary users who turn to X as a source of information otherwise difficult to access on the Chinese internet. Dereck Yang, a 28-year-old lawyer based in Shanghai, told Rest of World he now uses the platform less due to the surge in pornographic content. “It has become inescapable,” he said. “I’m afraid to open the app in public because I don’t know when inappropriate images will pop up.”

Yang first started using Twitter in 2017 while studying abroad in the U.S., but his use of the app increased in 2022 when Shanghai’s zero-Covid lockdowns sparked widespread outrage in the city. Inspired by the rise of Chinese-language citizen journalism on the platform, he started using it to document stories from lockdown, reposting WeChat and Weibo videos that had been deleted. “When the Chinese government removes information relevant to our lives, many people increasingly count on Twitter to fill the gap,” said Yang.

Wang, the investigative journalist, tried reporting the accounts, but X did little to address the problem. He then decided to take matters into his own hands. “If Twitter doesn’t care about Chinese-language users, we are going to practice self-governance,” he posted. Over the course of  July, Wang launched a “War on Sextortion Scammers” campaign, calling on his followers to mass-report the scammer accounts that replied to his posts. 

On July 20, he started a public “harassing contest” on the platform, encouraging his followers to troll the scammers through the Telegram accounts listed on their bios. Since scammers’ business model requires that they chat with potential targets, Wang said he asked his followers to waste their time and make their job more difficult. 

Some users have taken a less confrontational approach. In July, software engineer Robin Li developed PureTwitter, a Google Chrome extension that can curb pornographic content in the Chinese language by blocking keywords and blacklisting accounts. Another software developer, who preferred to be identified by her online name “Whisper,” has launched a similar Chrome extension called “Block Pornographic Replies.” 

According to Li, PureTwitter is based on a blacklist of sextortion scammer accounts flagged by Chinese-language users on X. The program then screens comments for accounts that share patterns — such as certain keywords — with accounts on the blacklist and blocks them. PureTwitter currently has about 3,000 users.

Wang said his efforts have paid off. Since he launched his “War on Sextortion Scammers,” he has noticed a decline in spam in his replies. But according to Li, the sextortion scammer accounts continue to persist on the platform. He said PureTwitter has detected and blocked 30–70 such accounts daily for the past month.

“I hope Chinese-language Twitter will one day be home to more high-quality news and discussion,” said Wang. “I believe we can only get there by giving sextortion scammers zero tolerance.”