FBI warns about sextortion schemes targeting minors

January 16, 2024

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

The FBI is warning about a significant increase in sexual extortion, or sextortion, schemes targeting minors, with a subsequent rise in cases leading to suicide.

Children who use online gaming platforms, gaming consoles, live-streaming or video platforms, instant messaging apps and social media are vulnerable to online predators, the FBI says. Offenders use different tactics to lure children into engaging in inappropriate behavior. The offenders are typically located outside the United States, and the victims are typically males between the ages of 14 and 17.

Fraudsters often use a catfishing tactic of impersonating a child of a similar age in order to gain a victim’s trust. In such cases, a boy could think he is chatting with a girl, and the perpetrator may send a nude photo or video of the female being impersonated to add legitimacy to the relationship. 

Offenders may ask the child to switch to a second platform capable of video calling and/or chatting. Perpetrators ask children to send sexually explicit images and videos and/or engage in sexually explicit activities via video call, then capture the material without the victim’s knowledge. If a child does not comply in producing sexually explicit imagery, offenders sometimes edit and create sexually explicit images of the victim.

Perpetrators threaten to release the compromising material unless the victim sends money, gift cards, cryptocurrency or another form of payment. In some instances, fraudsters send the sexually explicit images or videos to relatives or friends, even if the victims pay. Offenders have even extorted relatives of victims who have committed suicide. 

Additionally, perpetrators sometimes create images to elicit a response from the child. Examples include fake news headlines about the arrest of the victim; a collage containing sexually explicit material and identifying information; and a draft of a social media post that would distribute the sexually explicit material. There are instances when offenders distribute the images even if the child pays. 

Victims often feel alone, embarrassed and too afraid to seek help. There have been an alarming number of suicides by male victims of financially-motivated sextortion schemes, according to the FBI. 

“Several young people have taken their own life based on the feelings of fear and shame that result from sextortion and subsequent financial targeting,” said Donald Alway, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “Whether you’re a parent, guardian, educator, coach or have some role in the life of a young person, please talk to them about this crime and how to avoid becoming a victim.”