JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There is a safety alert for parents: The FBI is aware of a growing trend of online extortion cases targeting teens.
The agency released an advisory this week saying it has been tracking thousands of what it calls “sextortion” cases – people who were blackmailed into handing over money, gift cards or other payments to avoid publishing explicit images.
But cases of “financial sextortion” go one step further, Jacksonville FBI spokesperson Amanda Videll explains.
“In these financial sextortion cases, they say, instead of us releasing these photos, we want you to pay us so we don’t do that, and these predators are getting away with a lot of money,” Videll told NewsJAX Friday.
The targets, Videll says, are usually young teens, mostly boys, who come into contact with scammers on any online communication platform — be it a dating site, a game console, or a social media app.
“They ask these kids to buy gift cards and send them the numbers of those gift cards or just give them their bank account number directly, and then they just drain these kids’ bank accounts,” Videll said.
RELATED: FBI: Steep climb in teens targeted for online ‘sextortion’
In the past year, the FBI has tracked more than 7,000 reports, resulting in the discovery of about 3,000 victims.
Unfortunately, the agency says, the trend has also contributed to dozens of suicides.
But Videll says it’s also difficult to identify all cases because young teens are afraid to report the crime due to the nature of the crime.
“Unfortunately, this scam works because these predators terrify their victims,” Videll said. “The fear makes people act to prevent something bad from happening in their lives in the future.”
So the answer, says Videll, is to have a conversation with your kids to prepare them for the online dangers they may encounter, but also to let them know you’re there as their advocate and protector if there’s any. something happens.
So sit down, talk to your child about the apps, the permissions they give to these applications when they download them, the types of personal information they’re going to share with the world if they’re not careful, and set those settings right when they put that content there,” Videll said.
Videll also says to ignore your instincts to immediately block or delete scam posts or profiles. The FBI actually wants you to keep that to give them more evidence to investigate.
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