Financial sextortion schemes target more teens via social media

Lina Portman1 week ago

0 3 minutes read

Financial “sextortion” schemes have increased in recent years, with offenders appearing to primarily target teenagers through Instagram and other social media platforms, threatening victims with compromising images in exchange for money, according to a new report.

The report, released Monday jointly by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and technology nonprofit Thorn, analyzed more than 15 million reports made to NCMEC's hotline from 2020 to 2023. It details dangerous trends in sextortion, including financial sextortion. , which NCMEC called “a growing crisis affecting children around the world.”

The report found that incidents of sextortion have increased significantly in recent years, with reports of online enticement increasing by 82% between 2021 and 2022, when the NCMEC hotline received more than 80,500 reports. The number of incidents continued to increase last year, with an average of 812 reports per week, according to data analyzed between August 2022 and August 2023.

The report defines sextortion as “the threat to reveal sexual images of a person if they do not comply with their demands.” And while sextortion schemes are not new, the report reveals a growing trend of financial sextortion that appears to target boys and involves demands for money.

In 2023 alone, NCMEC said it received more than 26,700 reports of financial sextortion.

“Financial sextortion poses a serious and growing threat to children, especially adolescents,” Julie Cordua, CEO of Thorn, said in a statement. “Unlike traditional forms of sextortion, these perpetrators demand money, leveraging fear and the threat of sharing intimate images to extort their victims before they have time to seek help. “

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Reports frequently include the use of “catfishing”

Historically, girls have been the most common targets of child sextortion schemes, according to the report. These programs often involved requests of a “sexual or relationship nature,” such as requests for intimate images, to engage in sexual acts or to have a romantic relationship, the report said.

But in recent years, concerns about a “unique” form of sextortion have grown, the report said. Financial sextortion moves away from sexual or relationship demands and instead involves specifically monetary demands.

The report found that the majority of victims of financial sextortion incidents submitted to NCMEC were teenagers and 90% were between the ages of 14 and 17.

“These reports most often include the use of catfishing – in this case, an abuser posing as another young person – to manipulate a teenager into sharing sexual images or videos of themselves,” the report said. “This attacker then threatens to share these images with their family, friends or followers unless they are paid.”

Some cases also involved the use of deepfakes, in which victims reported that the perpetrators were using artificial intelligence-generated images against them, the report said.

Interactions between victims and perpetrators are also “often transactional,” as incidents can quickly escalate from first contact with the victim to payment within 24 hours or sooner, Thorn said in a press release.

“Sextortion can be a very stressful situation for children who may be afraid to report the incident or seek help, but it is important to remember that threats are designed to intimidate, silence and isolate their victims ” Cordua said. “Paying the abuser can lead to continued harassment. The best solution in these situations is to not pay, report the sextortion to NCMEC, law enforcement, and the platform where it occurred , and block the attacker.”

Programs operated globally via social media platforms

The report identifies Nigeria and Ivory Coast as the two countries most often linked to sextortion schemes, with incidents linked to criminal networks operating in these countries. “As financial sextortion increasingly becomes an organized international operation, there are many similarities between the incidents,” according to Thorn.

Similarities include perpetrators posing as other teenagers, victims sharing intimate images in response to catfishing and perpetrators threatening to “ruin” the victim's life, Thorn said. Instagram and Snapchat were the social media platforms most frequently cited as initial points of contact for schemes, according to the report. Facebook and YouTube were also common platforms used by abusers to threaten their victims.

The report found that Instagram was the common distribution platform mentioned in financial sextortion data. The platform was cited in over 81% of distribution reports and 60% of distribution threat reports.

The report also notes the trend of offenders using end-to-end encrypted messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, to communicate with victims, as well as the use of gift cards and Cash App as payment methods.

According to Thorn, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook have been the top reporters of sextortion to the NCMEC hotline. Instagram owner Meta told USA TODAY that the company is working “aggressively to combat this abuse and support law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting the criminals behind this abuse.” .

“As NCMEC has noted, higher reporting numbers are often the result of a platform's efforts to detect and report abusive content – and we have spent years doing both,” Meta said in a communicated. “We have already implemented many of the report's recommendations and recently announced a series of new features designed to help protect people from sextortion.”

Reports frequently include the use of “catfishing”

Programs operated globally via social media platforms

Lina Portman

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