It's called Sextortion.
“The crime always follows the same pattern,” says Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans. “Most often it's a boy, befriended on social media or gaming sites by someone purporting to be a beautiful girl.”
Evans says criminals convince young victims to share explicit photos of themselves and then extort them for money with the threat of posting the pictures online. He says it's critical that parents have those difficult conversations trying to prevent it from happening again.
“The victims of these crimes didn’t break any laws,” said Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson. “They were tricked by a ruthless criminal, and how it happened doesn’t matter as much as telling a parent or a trusted adult if it does. We need to work together to stop this crime and prevent any further loss of money, innocence or lives.”
The consequences of not taking action, according to Evans, have been grave.
“These crimes have led to more than a dozen young people committing suicide across the United States in the past year,” Evans explains.
One of those victims was just 10-years old.
The FBI, in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), also issued a national public safety alert in December regarding an explosion in incidents of children and teens being coerced into financial sextortion.
Over the past year, law enforcement across the country received over 7,000 reports related to the online financial sextortion of minors, resulting in at least 3,000 victims.
A large percentage of these sextortion schemes originate outside of the United States and primarily in West African countries such as Nigeria and Ivory Coast.
“The FBI has seen a horrific increase in reports of financial sextortion schemes targeting minor boys—and the fact is that the many victims who are afraid to come forward are not even included in those numbers,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The FBI is here for victims, but we also need parents and caregivers to work with us to prevent this crime before it happens and help children come forward if it does. Victims may feel like there is no way out—it is up to all of us to reassure them that they are not in trouble, there is hope, and they are not alone.”
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