Online Exploitation

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Feb 11, 2025 -   The process of financially motivated sextortion follows a clear sequence, where the victim is coerced into paying a ransom to prevent the release of compromising material. Once the victim is manipulated or coerced into sending money, the extortionists use various platforms to collect payments, many of which are accessible to teens due to their ease of use. These payment platforms often lack robust consumer protections.  

Jan 13, 2025 -   COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a bill into law that will make sextortion a felony in Ohio, years after a 15-year-old Olentangy High School football player took his life after falling victim to the scam. 

Jan 13, 2025 -  Riley Basford was a happy, well-adjusted 15-year-old who was looking forward to a spring highlighted by his upcoming high school lacrosse season and learning to drive. 

Dec 18, 2024 - NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Ten people are facing felony charges after more than a dozen victims were identified in a large-scale operation to target child exploitation and sextortion in Tennessee.

Over three months, from October through December, the TBI conducted “Operation Autumn Shield.”

Operation Autumn Shield resulted in 19 victims being identified and 10 people being arrested on various internet crimes against children.

Dec 16, 2024 - LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's anti-graft agency said it had arrested 792 suspects in a raid on a building believed to be a hub for fraudsters who lured victims with offers of romance, then pressed them to hand over cash for phoney cryptocurrency investments.

The suspects, including 148 Chinese and 40 Filipino nationals, were detained on Dec. 10 at the seven-storey Big Leaf Building in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren said.

Dec 12, 2024 -  The Aurora Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children Unit has made an arrest in its nearly year-long "sextortion" investigation. Jamir Deante Bright of Aurora was arrested last Friday, Dec. 5, on an active felony warrant for two charges related to child exploitation and one charge related to criminal extortion.  

Nov 27, 2024 -   LYON, France – A global operation involving law enforcement from 40 countries, territories and regions has ended with the arrest of over 5,500 financial crime suspects and the seizure of more than USD 400 million in virtual assets and government-backed currencies. 

Nov 26, 2024 -  Meta said Thursday that it removed more than 2 million accounts this year that sought to trick internet users around the world into forking over their money in fake investment schemes, part of a rise in criminal activity across the web. 

Nov 18, 2024 -  The Microsoft 365 Admin Portal is being abused to send sextortion emails, making the messages appear trustworthy and bypassing email security platforms. 

Nov 14, 2024 -  Sextortion scams have taken a disturbing turn, evolving from generic threats to highly personalised attacks that exploit victims’ deepest fears. Cybercriminals are even sending an image of Google Maps to the victim’s place, sending shivers down the spine of the victims. 

Nov 9, 2024 -  The U.S. Attorney, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and National Security are warning parents about the growing online threat of sextortion.  764 is a shadow organization that preys on young children.  Specifically, the group targets young people struggling with mental health issues, contacting them through publicly available platforms. 

Nov 6, 2024 - GLASGOW, United Kingdom – INTERPOL today is releasing preliminary results of its largest-ever operation against human trafficking and migrant smuggling, carried out across 116 countries and territories.

Operation Liberterra II (29 September to 4 October) led to the rescue of 3,222 potential victims of human trafficking and identified 17,793 irregular migrants.

Nov 13, 2024 -  The Australian Federal Police is intensifying its efforts to disrupt networks of violent extremists who are coercing children to engage in self-harm, sexually explicit acts and sadistic violence. 

Nov 8, 2024 - Video footage reveals the staggering scale of a sextortion “warehouse” in the country linked to a blackmail plot that led to a Scots teen’s death.

Images show inside the “scam farm” in the Philippines that was raided as part of a global crackdown on human trafficking and people smuggling gangs.

Nov 1, 2024 - A "dangerous predator" who plotted to sexually abuse a five-year-old girl has been jailed.

Jared Lamb, 46, sent explicit messages about how he intended to abuse the child and a series of indecent images to undercover officers posing as the girl's father, South Yorkshire Police said.

Oct 26, 2024 - A 26-year-old man from Northern Ireland, who pretended to be a teenage girl on the internet to target thousands of girls in a wide-reaching online pedophilia case and who was convicted of manslaughter in the death of a 12-year-old girl in the United States, was sentenced in Britain on Friday to at least 20 years in prison.

Alexander McCartney pleaded guilty to 185 charges of child sexual abuse crimes and blackmail. He had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge in March.

Oct 25, 2024 - Police believe that Alexander McCartney targeted around 3,500 children in more than 30 countries around the world. He had 64 devices that he was using to contact his victims. Prosecutors said he was offending so frequently that it was hard to know how he had time to do anything else.

He messaged so many children that he even copied and pasted his messages to them to save time.

Oct 25, 2024 -  COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A Columbus man was arrested Friday on child exploitation charges stemming from an online relationship with a 13-year-old, in which he attempted to solicit sexual acts from the minor over the internet. 

Oct 10, 2024 -  A popular Plaza Midwood nail salon’s owner and his wife are facing charges in a sextortion and felony peeping scheme at a local spa. 

Oct 8, 2024 - In August 2022, an FBI operations center began receiving complaints about a user on Discord, an instant messaging app popular with gamers.  The user, who went by the name "Rabid," was believed to be grooming minors to create child sex abuse material and to "engage in self-harm," a motion filed by federal prosecutors said.   

Oct 1, 2024 - Snapchat allowed the sextortion of underage users and other dangerous behaviors to flourish while it struggled to find a way to address such issues without “striking fear” into its users and their parents, according to an unredacted version of a lawsuit recently filed against the company. 

Sep 27, 2024 -  Terrell Ashby, also known by the alias “Jason Brandon,” has been sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for orchestrating a widespread sextortion scheme. United States District Court Judge Gerald McHugh handed down the sentence Thursday, which also includes three years of supervised release and the payment of $28,883.64 in restitution to the victims. 

Sep 26, 2024 - The package of bills, HB 5887, HB 5888 and HB 5889 together create specific criminal penalties for sexual extortion where none exist in Michigan, as well as implement educational resources to be distributed to schools on how to talk to students about the dangers of sexual extortion and how to get help. 

Sep 25, 2024 - After a string of sextortion cases, the University of Illinois Police Department is giving students tips to prevent being a victim of a crime. In the past 10 days, UIPD said they are aware of three separate incidents of students scammed into sexual extortion.

Oct 1, 2024 -  Exploitation is a form of abuse that occurs when one person unfairly manipulates another for profit or personal gain. Various individual and social characteristics have the potential to increase an individual’s risk of being exploited. Cognitive impairment is one potential vulnerability factor that has received minimal research attention. This scoping review aimed to investigate cognitive impairment as a factor that may increase an individual’s vulnerability to exploitation.  

Feb 20, 2024 - Children cutting the names of their abusers into themselves, children abusing younger siblings, teenagers killing their pets—all of it was celebrated as an accomplishment.   

Sep 12, 2023 -  The FBI is warning the public of violent online groups deliberately targeting minor victims on publicly available messaging platforms to extort them into recording or live-streaming acts of self-harm and producing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). These groups use threats, blackmail, and manipulation to control the victims into recording or live-streaming self-harm, sexually explicit acts, and/or suicide; the footage is then circulated among members to extort victims further and exert control over them. 

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Sept. 11, 2024 -  At first “John” was flattered when a woman reached out to him on social media, and sent him “kind and supportive” messages.

“Then they started to get flirty,” says John, who has a learning disability and asked to remain anonymous.

The woman, who said she was a teacher, began sending him intimate photos and convinced him to do the same. But after he sent one back, her tone shifted.

Sept. 9, 2024 -  Between Aug. 20 and Sept. 5, four Delaware men were arrested and/or self-surrendered in Delaware on federal charges relating to an alleged international “sextortion” scheme that targeted thousands of victims throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.   

Sept. 6, 2024 -  The Justice Department today announced that Samuel Ogoshi, 24, and Samson Ogoshi, 21, both of Lagos, Nigeria, were each sentenced to 210 months in prison and five years of supervised release for conspiracy to sexually exploit minors. On March 25, 2022, 17-year-old high school student, Jordan DeMay, of Marquette, Michigan, died as a result of this sextortion scheme, which targeted over 100 other victims. 

Sept 3, 2024 - An old but persistent email scam known as “sextortion” has a new personalized touch: The missives, which claim that malware has captured webcam footage of recipients pleasuring themselves, now include a photo of the target’s home in a bid to make threats about publishing the videos more frightening and convincing.

Sept 2, 2024 -   BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBMA) — A national safety group reporting a shift in victims of sextortion. Young males are now the most frequent target and Instagram the most popular platform for connecting with children. 

August 23, 2024 -  LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- A 21-year-old Chilean man suspected of meeting a 14- year-old girl through an online gaming application, grooming, and sexually exploiting her before planning to meet with her in the Glendora area was taken into custody, police said Wednesday. 

They revel in lives of luxury with designer clothes, flash cars and expensive jewelry.

Flashing piles of cash and showing off Mercedes motors and £1000 Balenciaga trainers, these are the men proud to call themselves ‘Yahoo Boys’ - scammers who have conned thousands of young Brits through sextortion.  Showing off the spoils of their crimes while working together in so-called 'Hustle Kingdoms' - upmarket hotel rooms - the tricksters have no shame.

But this is a criminal network with blood on its hands.

 MARQUETTE, Mich. (WJMN) — Families of sextortion victims shared their stories alongside a national organization for a Day of Action on Tuesday, criticizing Meta for their lagging reporting times amid surging cases. 

 Seventeen-year-old Jordan DeMay was a beloved high school student from Michigan, who took his own life in 2022 — just hours after he was the target of a crime known as "sextortion."

Cybercriminals posed as an attractive girl in the United States who was interested in him. Then they threatened to release explicit photographs of him, unless he paid them. He sent $300, but they demanded more.

  TOKYO -- Sextortion cases involving threats to distribute sexual images or videos over social media, often along with demands for money or items, are on the rise in Japan, and the Mainichi Shimbun spoke with investigative sources and others to hear more about how these incidents unfold. 

   MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN — U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten today announced that Samuel Ogoshi, 22, and Samson Ogoshi, 20, of Lagos, Nigeria, each pleaded guilty to conspiring to sexually exploit teenage boys in the Western District of Michigan and across the United States.  The offense of conspiracy to sexually exploit minors requires a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison; the maximum possible penalty is 30 years. 

 A predator who posed as a famous teenage YouTuber to blackmail hundreds of girls into performing sex acts on camera has been jailed in “one of the worst sextortion cases” in history. 

No conversation may be as important as the one about the dangers of online predators and your child’s pictures and information ending up in the wrong hands.
The FBI wants parents to know what apps their kids are using and who they are talking to. “These kids will either think they know who the subject is or it’s a friend of theirs or not, and they’ll end up enticing them to send these photos to them,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge David Collins.  

Five people from the United States have been arrested related to a money laundering conspiracy. Authorities say the investigation is separate but related to the sextortion death of Marquette teenager, Jordan DeMay.

 

An adult sexual predator, posing as a teenager, sought out young boys from 10 to 13 years old to entice them to play various online gaming platforms and then sexually exploited them, police in Scottsdale say — part of a growing trend that authorities contend should put parents on alert.

 

 Sextortion has affected thousands of young people across the country including children in East Tennessee.  It causes embarrassment, anxiety, desperation and in the most severe cases—suicide. 

"It is a threat. In terms of child exploitation and child sexual abuse, those threats have been around since the beginning of mankind. The threats that we are seeing now grow because there are more people online than have ever been online," FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Jordan Hadfield said. 

A whopping one in five preteens aged 9-12 have had an online sexual interaction with someone they believed to be an adult, according to a report from anti-human trafficking organization Thorn. 

If you’re reading this, odds are you’ve sent a nude or suggestive photo to someone at some point in your life—and you wouldn’t be alone. A third of Americans have shared a nude photo, an intimacy expert and certified sexologist told the New York Post. In fact, they send 1.8 million nudes per day (20 per second), according to a survey from Bad Girls Bible. That gives scammers a lot of people they can easily blackmail, whether they actually have your nudes or not. 

Someone who was a sextortionist blackmailer shares their story and advice on Reddit.

In 2017, Thorn launched a sextortion research survey. The number of responses from individuals who have experienced sextortion was shocking. We gained valuable insight about this real-life harm from over 1,600 victims. Reading first-hand accounts of what sextortion victims experience may be difficult, but it’s how we’ll shed light on this crime that hides in DMs and private online spaces.  

If someone threatens to share a nude image or video of you, that’s a type of image-based abuse (or ‘revenge porn’) and it’s illegal. If they are trying to blackmail you, don't pay them. You can report image-based abuse and get help. 

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has removed roughly 63,000 accounts and is banning all future content from a notorious online cybercriminal ring that's targeted U.S. adults in financial sextortion scams. 

Financial sextortion is a horrific crime that can have devastating consequences. Our teams have deep experience in fighting this crime and work closely with experts to recognize the tactics scammers use, understand how they evolve and develop effective ways to help stop them.  

Just hours before his untimely death, the life of 16-year-old Murray Dowey from Scotland seemed ordinary–a night of family bonding over television and plans for an upcoming holiday with friends. Little did his parents know that the following morning would shatter their world, as Murray became another casualty of the sextortion epidemic sweeping across the globe. 

Snapchat has announced a bunch of new features to protect teens from sextortion.

This includes improvement to its blocking function, better control over location settings, and safety pop-ups that encourage teens to be cautious of people they meet on the app. Users will also be encouraged to update their apps at the earliest.

 ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The FBI defines sextortion as a crime involving someone threatening to distribute another person’s private and sensitive material.

According to the federal agency, sextortion cases are up 700% since 2021. The average victim is between 10 and 17 years old but can be as young as seven years old, according to investigators. More boys fall victim.

Authorities are warning parents about an online scam that is growing around the U.S., including here in the Coachella Valley. It's called 'Sextortion', or 'Sexploitation', and it's a difficult concept to grasp, but the consequences can be devastating. It's a scheme that Detective Sergent Miguel Torres with the Palm Springs Police Department, is seeing much more of. 

Not long ago, making prank calls was the worst trouble a group of teens could get into with a telephone.

But today, predators use phones to stalk and blackmail teens on social media and dating apps. Sextortion — the act of threatening to share nude or explicit images — is more common than you may think, and cases affecting young children, teens and adults have increased exponentially in the past two years. In fact, Homeland Security Investigations received over 3,000 sextortion tips in fiscal year 2022.

 The FBI wants to warn parents, educators, caregivers, and children about sextortion, a crime that involves the solicitation and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual acts that are photographed or filmed and provided to an offender they have met online. 

President Joe Biden signed into law the bipartisan Revising Existing Procedures on Reporting via Technology (REPORT) Act, authored by U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.).

This legislation will require Big Tech companies such as Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram to report crimes against children involving sex trafficking, grooming, or the enticement of children for sexual acts to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) CyberTipline. Currently, criminal law only requires companies to report child sexual abuse materials (CSAM).

 In the current Congressional session (2023-2024), we have seen many bills introduced that relate to the online sexual exploitation and abuse of children (OSEAC) or to child safety more broadly. One of these important pieces of legislation, the Revising Existing Procedures On Reporting via Technology Act (or the REPORT Act), recently passed out of the House of Representatives and was subsequently signed into law by President Biden on May 7, 2024. 

Romance scammers tell all sorts of lies to steal your heart and money, and reports to the FTC show those lies are working. Last year’s romance scam numbers looked a lot like 2021 all over again, and it’s not a pretty picture. In 2022, nearly 70,000 people reported a romance scam, and reported losses hit a staggering $1.3 billion.[1] The median reported loss: $4,400.[2] 

 Millions of people use online dating apps or social networking sites to meet someone. But instead of finding romance, many find a scammer trying to trick them into sending money. Read about the stories romance scammers make up and learn the number one way to avoid a romance scam. 

In romance scams, a criminal uses a fake online identity to gain a victim's affection and trust. The scammer then uses the illusion of a romantic or close relationship to manipulate and/or steal from the victim. 

A romance scam is a form of confidence scheme whereby a scammer gains the trust of a victim by developing a romantic relationship. This relationship usually begins through contact on social media or dating applications, but can also occur on online job sites. Victims can be both men and women. Most of these scams are perpetrated by individuals overseas – primarily Nigeria. 

When you have a new romance there’s so much to talk about. But if your new sweetheart only wants to talk about your money and how you should invest it, stop talking. They might be a romance scammer, like those who stole more than $1 billion from people last year. How do the scams start, and what can you do to avoid one? 

May 16, 2024 -  The word “grooming” has become synonymous with sexual abuse of children. High-profile cases such as the allegations by cyclist Bradley Wiggins have raised public awareness of how grooming can go unnoticed. To stop grooming before it takes place, we have to fully understand what it is and how it happens – a difficult task for such a complex and wide-ranging concept. 

 Sextortion, also known as webcam blackmail, is when intimate images and videos are recorded and used for financial exploitation and coercion. It is a very common crime that we see a lot of on the helpline. If you are reading this, it is likely that this may have happened to you or someone you know. We understand this can be hugely distressing, and we hope this article can explain a little more about why you should stop all contact with the blackmailer, block their account, and report them to the platform.  

A Folsom man who was sexually blackmailing teenagers from around the country will spend nearly the rest of his life in prison.

Matthew Goyder, 41, was sentenced last week inside the Sacramento federal courthouse. Detectives say Goyder would pose as a 15-year-old boy and then would threaten his victims into sending him explicit photos.

 Washington — James Woods, a 17-year-old college-bound track star, had just gotten his driver's license and posed for his senior yearbook photo when an online predator targeted him on Instagram. 

James received 200 messages in less than 20 hours, according to his mother, Tamia Woods.   

"It ranged anywhere from 'I own you,' to 'you need to take your own life,'" Woods told CBS News. 

The FBI calls what happened to James financial sextortion. 

 Predators can weaponize social media platforms against vulnerable youth. 

  Instagram is set to use blurring tools to fight “sextortion.”

The firm will deploy the software within weeks after a spate of blackmail cases involving intimate pictures sent online and “revenge porn.”

It includes “nudity protection,” which blurs naked images in direct messages and will be turned on by default for users under 18 years old.

A father is turning the loss of his son into a personal mission.

A sextortion scam targeted his entire family and South Carolina state Rep. Brandon Guffey says the company that runs sites like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp could have done more to prevent his son Gavin’s death.

 AURORA, Mo. (KY3) - A tragic story of a young man who took his own life in Aurora. It’s the story of 16-year-old Evan Boettler. His family hopes you can learn from it. 

 The U.S. is seeing a rise in financial sextortion cases targeting thousands of minors and officials say teenage boys are being targeted specifically. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2022 says it received more than 10,000 tips of financial sextortion of minors. By the end of July 2023, the agency says the number of reports jumped to nearly 13,000. John Shehan, senior vice president of the exploited children division and international engagement at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, joined CBS News to discuss the issue. 

 Sextortion is a form of image-based sexual abuse that is growing nationwide. During COVID-19, men experienced higher rates of sextortion than women. Sextortion has negative psychological, physical, and social consequences for victims.

  CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The FBI wants parents, caregivers and teenagers to be aware sextortion attempts, which is when adults pose as teens to try and entice victims into being sexually exploited for money, typically spike during breaks from school.  

   When our lives are intricately intertwined with technology, we must be vigilant against the myriad of online threats that lurk in the shadows. One such threat is “sextortion:” It’s a type of phishing attack that harasses victims with the threat that their devices have been taken over, and that a hacker has recorded video footage of their victims’ personal lives.