Webcams are great if you want to get to know a person better, but what if the person you’re talking to is recording your webcam? Is that possible? Can the same person publish that recording online? The answers to these questions are yes, and very easily so.
There are people who have made a sport out of this, which is really a crime. They are generally referred to as ‘Cam Baiters’. Sometimes also called ‘Booby Baiters’, they are mostly men who talk unsuspecting women into showing certain body parts, undressed, in front of a webcam.
I have written this chapter for both victims of Cam Baiters, as well Cam Baiters themselves. It is my intent that by raising awareness of this act (which is a criminal offense), potential victims will be more careful and likewise Cam Baiters may see things from a different perspective.
I will explain how Cam Baiting works using easy to understand terms, without using technical jargon, so that you can protect yourself by knowing in advance what the possibilities are.
I realize that by explaining how this works, wrongdoers may be prompted (i.e. given ideas) to become Cam Baiters themselves. Then again, if you know about this practice too and know how it’s done all over the world, you can prevent it from happening to you.
When you make a telephone call to another person, your voice is sent (transmitted) over a wire, through the air and sometimes via a satellite. Images are sent the same way. And a webcam basically sends a lot of images, one following the other in succession.
You may have heard about voice recorders. People use them to record ideas because they are more conveniently stored that way, or to review a meeting after it’s over. Voice recorders are sometimes also used on a telephone, to record conversations. Webcams can also be recorded.
Webcams are recorded using so-called ‘Screen Recording’ software, and sometimes also using the webcam software itself. The software’s intended use is for making instruction videos and demos. Either an area or the entire screen is recorded. A movie and/or images is/are then made.
A Cam Baiter employs different ‘techniques’ – their modus operandi – to ‘bait’ the person. Methods used vary per Cam Baiter but also depending on who they are talking to. And sometimes, different Cam Baiters share ideas in certain adult-oriented communities.
Below is an overview of how Cam Baiters generally bait a victim, derived from material found on various websites where these techniques are openly discussed, among other places:
On a personal note, I am really appalled by the various methods which Cam Baiters use, both from reading about them on websites where these things are shared openly among people, as well as from conversations I’ve had with Cam Baiting victims.
To make matters worse, especially BBW are targeted by Cam Baiters because it is their belief that most BBW have “low self-esteem and are therefore easily manipulated”. One of the most often used methods with a BBW is to tell her that she should be lucky someone talks to them.
Suffice to say, it is this kind of act which does not attribute to a friendly and safe Internet. People with good intentions become victims themselves, for the people they sincerely want to commune with have become untrustworthy and ‘damaged’.
When you engage in a communication with someone there must be an unspoken understanding that you treat the other person with courtesy and respect. These are the unwritten laws of communication, separating you from the uncivilized.
If you have ever engaged in Cam Baiting yourself, I ask that you consider the above and change your ways. If you treat a person with respect, you will receive the same in return. But if you violate that respect, you deserve none either.
Many countries around the world have laws to protect the privacy of its citizens. If you have ever engaged in cam baiting another person, please ask yourself whether laws really even matter. Publishing someone’s video and/or images without their consent is a severe breach of privacy!
Recording your desktop is not committing a crime. However, where Cam Baiting becomes a criminal offense, is when the recording, or part of it, is published or distributed by the Cam Baiter without the recorded person’s consent.
Later in this chapter, I will talk about ways to report Cam Baiting and other forms of abuse.
The best advice I can give you is to simply not undress in front of a webcam. But I know – especially when trust is established between two people – that this is sometimes difficult, and even though you know it’s dangerous, you still do it.
You do it, because you want to ‘express certain aspects of yourself’. I know that’s just a fancy way of saying to not flash or do other things in front of a webcam, but it’s the only way you can be sure you won’t end up on some website, chasing its webmaster to remove the content.
If you want to still do these things but be safe about them, at the very least never show your face on the cam and make sure you are using an Internet connection which has security enabled! It is beyond the scope of this website to detail how the latter works, but you can start searching here.