Imagine if you can that you’re an unfathomably wealthy man living a picture-perfect life: a tight-knit family, cute kids, an impressive job title and enough money to make life as frictionless as it can possibly be. Then, one day, boredom creeps in. Maybe you visit a website for sugar daddies seeking sugar babies, or start an affair with a younger colleague. Perhaps that relationship then turns sour, or never really goes further than the sharing of a compromising selfie.
Next thing you know, you’re being threatened: pay up or your reputation will be in tatters. What does the unfathomably wealthy man do when he’s about to lose everything? “I’ve had cases where they’ve paid tens to hundreds of thousands [to blackmailers],” says Alexandra McCready. She heads the reputation privacy department at London-based law firm Vardags, a team of six people who increasingly find themselves occupied with so-called sextortion cases.
