As social media continues to work its way into different parts of our lives, certain usernames are now coveted commodities.
People want clean, simple social media handles free of extra symbols, letters or numbers — and as a CBS News report found, they'll do almost anything to get them.
Some cybercriminals are going to extreme lengths to bully, harass, and extort social media users into giving up their usernames on sites like Instagram, Minecraft, Twitter, and Snapchat.
One extreme tactic is called "swatting," and federal officials tell CBS News it's happening more and more.
Cybercriminals are using various means of intimidation to get innocent social media users to give up their accounts. Then they turn around and sell the usernames on online marketplaces. CBS found that some usernames were being sold for as much as $25,000.
But some unsuspecting social media users, figuratively speaking, are paying a much higher cost.
"The schemes are actually resulting in violence and loss of life," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite, who leads the criminal division at the Department of Justice, told CBS News.
Take the story of Mark Herring, a grandfather who signed up for the Twitter handle "@Tennessee" in 2007. By 2020, CBS reports, Herring was turning down constant offers to buy his username.
However, it all came to a head when dozens of police cruisers showed up at Herring's cabin after his local sheriff's office reportedly received a call from a man claiming to be Herring.
The caller gave deputies Herring's address and went on to describe how he had murdered a woman he met on a dating app and had armed his home with pipe bombs, CBS reports.
The call was a hoax, but when officers showed up at Herring's home, he reportedly suffered a heart attack and died.
A week later, the FBI arrested Shane Sonderman, a 19-year-old who the Department of Justice says was behind the swatting call that led to Herring's death.
The DOJ report says Sonderman was part of a group that used swatting tactics like deceiving emergency service dispatchers into sending law enforcement, sending harassing text messages and ordering unpaid-for food to be delivered to their targets' homes.
Herring is just one example of the many social media users across the country who say they are being threatened for their handles. CBS News found that the market for clean social media handles has spawned a growing criminal enterprise.
A spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, told CBS News the company shut down about 400 Instagram accounts last February connected to cybercriminals who it believes obtained the usernames through extortion.
But some still feel social media companies aren't doing enough to crack down on these crimes. Several social media users who have been targeted for their usernames have come together to form a group called Alley, which is aimed at monitoring, legislating, and enforcing "new terms of service for and with these platforms to ensure that no criminal activity of any kind is slipping through the cracks."
