FBI says sextortion schemes targeting boys is up

The FBI Kansas City Division is warning parents and caregivers about an increase  in incidents involving sextortion of young children.

The FBI is receiving an increasing  number of reports of adults posing as young girls coercing young boys through social  media to produce sexual images and videos and then extorting money from them.  

Sextortion begins when an adult contacts a minor over any online platform used  to meet and communicate, such as a game, app, or social media account. In a scheme that  has recently become more prevalent, the predator (posing as a young girl) uses deception and manipulation to convince a young male, usually 14 to 17 years old, to engage in  explicit activity over video, which is then secretly recorded by the predator.

The predator  then reveals that they have made the recordings and attempts to extort the victim for  money to prevent them from being posted online. 

Sextortion is a crime. The coercion of a child by an adult to produce what is  considered Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) carries heavy penalties, which can  include up to life sentences for the offender. To make the victimization stop, children  typically have to come forward to someone—normally a parent, teacher, caregiver, or  law enforcement. The embarrassment children feel from the activity they were forced to  engage in is what typically prevents them from coming forward. 

The FBI provides the following tips to protect you and your children online: 

1. 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. 
2. Be wary of anyone you encounter for the first time online and block or ignore strangers’ messages. 
3. Be aware that people can pretend to be anything or anyone online. 
4. Be suspicious if you meet someone on a game or app and they ask you to start talking to them on a different platform.
5. Encourage your children to report suspicious behavior to a trusted adult.
6. If you believe you or someone you know is the victim of sextortion: Contact your local FBI field office (contact information can be found at www.fbi.gov), the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at www.ic3.gov, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (1-800-the-lost or  Cybertipline.org). 
7. Do not delete anything before law enforcement is able to review it. 3. Tell law enforcement everything about the encounters you had online; it may be embarrassing, but it is necessary to find the offender.

In 2021, the Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 18,000 sextortion-related complaints, with losses over  $13.6 million. T

For more information see sextortion .