Late Friday morning, the FBI’s Salt Lake City office sent out a press release and video to news outlets all over Utah, warning of a trend in sextortion—a practice of exhorting victims to meet demands by threatening to release compromising sexual images or information.
The press release focuses on a niche category of the criminal practice, saying it “begins when an adult contacts a minor over any online platform” and leads to “manipulation to convince a young male, usually 12 to 17 years old, to exchange sexually explicit photos or engage in explicit activity over video.” The predatory criminal then threatens to release the individual’s sexual material if demands are not met.
The video shared tells the story of a young man in Montana who found himself in a similar situation. His mother anonymously spoke about the experience, sharing about her teenage son sending sexually explicit material to who he thought was a girl his age.
“They had started talking about being in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship,” she said in the video. “Almost immediately it turned into her asking him for money. It became very demanding and aggressive.”
After her son came to her about the situation, the mother said she quickly realized it was not a teenage girl her child had been messaging. She blocked the phone number, only to have her son receive similar messages from a different number.
At one point, before he reached out for help, her son had seriously considered suicide as a way out of his situation. While he is currently doing well, not every sextortion story has a similar ending.
“Over the past year, law enforcement has received over 7,000 reports related to the online financial sextortion of minors,” the video said, “resulting in at least 3,000 victims, primarily boys, and more than a dozen suicides.”
The video also included an interview with Aaron Eisner, a supervisory senior resident agent. He said it is common for sexploitation perpetrators to target boys ages 12 to 17.
“Unfortunately, we’re seeing a growing trend of some of these young men turning to self-harm,” he said. “The children who do this, they are victims, and that’s how the FBI views them, and there are significant resources that the FBI provides.”
He added children who are wrapped up in these situations can receive help by reaching out to their local FBI offices.
The press release also provides the following list of suggestions to help people stay safe online:
— Be selective about what you share online, especially your personal information and passwords. If your social media accounts are open to everyone, a predator may be able to figure out a lot of information about you or your children.
— Be wary of anyone you encounter for the first time online. Block or ignore messages from strangers.
— Be aware that people can pretend to be anything or anyone online. Videos and photos are not proof that a person is who they claim to be.
— Be suspicious if you meet someone on a game or app and that person asks you to start talking to them on a different platform.
—Encourage your children to report suspicious behavior to a trusted adult.
Victims of sextortion or those who know victims of sextortion can report the situation by going to tips.fbi.gov or calling 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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