NEW YORK (Nettavisen): Fresh figures from the FBI show that a shocking number of teenagers are exposed to sexual blackmail in the United States. In Norway, Kripos has several times warned against the same thing.
The figures recently published by the FBI show that as many as 7,000 cases of so-called “sextortion”, or sexual blackmail, were reported in the United States in 2022.
– Blackmail that is not about sex
3,000 of these cases concerned young people under the age of 18 who had been subjected to sexual blackmail, the majority of whom were young boys.
The federal regulatory authority The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also states that sexual blackmail last year cost around 70,000 Americans a whopping 1.3 billion dollars, or around 13 billion Norwegian kroner.
The FTC is now issuing a strong warning about the sexual extortion, where the extortionists obtain compromising photos of their victims and then extort money from them.
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The fraudsters pretend to be young, beautiful girls and target young boys between the ages of 10 and 17, through the use of video games and social media, write Washington Examiner.
By tricking them or blackmailing the victims, they obtain compromising photos or video that are identifiable and then blackmail the boys for money. If they do not agree, they threaten to share the photos and videos with the victims’ friends.
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One of the cities that is now struggling greatly with this type of fraud in the USA is Minneapolis.
– It is blackmail that is not about sex. It’s simply blackmail, financial blackmail, says Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson.
In a campaigns they now go out and warn their citizens against the fraud.
West Central Tribune tells the story of a 14-year-old boy from Minnesota who was contacted on Instagram by a 14-year-old girl he didn’t know. The boy nevertheless accepted the friend request and started chatting with the person concerned. He was then asked if the two were going to have some fun, and then the two moved the conversation over to Snapchat.
Here the boy was asked to send intimate photos. After the photos were sent, the boy was extorted for $400.
– Wanted to destroy his life
The boy was pressured to steal his parents’ credit card to pay, and also received death threats and phone calls directly to his Snapchat account.
The boy’s mother also says that the fraudsters found out who his friends were on the internet and that they sent him pictures of the friends, and also found out which school he went to.
– They made it very clear that they wanted to destroy his life and that they had no problem doing so, says the mother.
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Data the FBI has access to shows that the majority of these cases can be linked to countries outside the United States, mainly in West Africa, which makes the cases very difficult to investigate.
Special Agent Kevin Kauffman in the FBI is one of those who are now working to warn the American population against this scam.
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He says that boys can suddenly get messages on social media from someone pretending to be a girl their age. They then state that they go to the same school, or that they live nearby.
– They then get the attention they long for. And then the communication begins, where the person starts asking for more photos of the person in compromising situations, says Kauffman to the TV channel WESH.
– Generally speaking, when it comes to boys from 11 to 16 years old, says the FBI agent, who says this form of sexual blackmail is a “global crisis”.
– It is very, very difficult to tell a 14-15-year-old boy that “Hey, you, you have sent nude photos to another man”, or “Hey, you have sent nude photos to a person who does not exist”, says Kaufmann .
And it’s not just boys who are victims, girls are also exposed to this form of fraud and blackmail, and it can have fatal consequences.
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Linked to multiple suicides
The FBI agent says the sexual blackmail is devastating for those who are affected and that children are particularly vulnerable.
– It is about the girl who only got top grades, then the grades went down. She was outgoing before it happened and became very withdrawn, won’t leave the room, won’t leave the house. And all this happens online, says Kauffman.
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He also confirms that sexual blackmail can be linked to several suicides among young people last year.
– They feel trapped, they don’t feel they can get out of it. And they believe that the only way out of it is suicide. Talk to your child and have that discussion. You have to make sure that the child understands that you are there for them and that you can help them, says the FBI agent.
Scammers’ favorite lies
According to the FTC, the number of people exposed to sexual blackmail has exploded in recent years. They calculate that 79,000 Americans in 2021 were pressured for around NOK 13 billion by so-called love scammers. in 2020, 54,210 Americans were defrauded of around NOK 7.3 billion, while 39,875 Americans were defrauded of around NOK 4.9 billion in 2019.
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The FTC has also made a list of the phrases and methods so-called love scammers use when they go after their victims. Here is the full list of the most common lies scammers used against American victims in 2022:
24 per cent: “I or someone close to me is ill, injured or in prison”.
18 percent: “I can teach you how to invest.”
18 per cent: “I’m in the military and I’m far away”.
18 per cent: “I need help with an important delivery”.
12 percent “We’ve never met, but let’s discuss marriage.”
7 per cent: “I have come across some money or gold”.
6 percent: “I’m on an oil rig or a ship.”
3 percent: “You can safely trust me when it comes to your private photos.”
– Lured in masturbation trap
Adults are also vulnerable to blackmail after sharing nude photos or videos of themselves, to what they thought was a real person.
And the procedure for how it happens is often the same whether it is adults or children who are the victims.
German Bild reports this week that several men have been subjected to sexual blackmail after falling into a masturbation trap. Bild writes that the men were contacted on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, and eventually ended up in situations where women presented themselves naked in front of them and masturbated.
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Police spokesman Christoph Hulls tells the newspaper that the men were then encouraged to do the same. However, they were filmed, and the men were pressured for sums of money of well over 1,000 Euros, with threats to publish the video on the internet if they did not pay.
According to Bild, one of the men who was exposed to fraud, and who refused to pay, later found his own masturbation video on a Facebook group.
– All his friends had received an invitation to join the group, writes the newspaper.
– Spreads pictures of Norwegian boys
Police officer Thale Parker at the section for internet-related abuse at Kripos tells Nettavisen that in Norway last year there was also an increase in the sexual extortion of children.
She says that boys as young as 14 have been pressured for money after sharing pictures of their penises or masturbating in front of a camera on the internet.
– We have had cases where boys aged 14-15 have been contacted on social media, from people who claim they are from another country, be it the USA or Australia, or other exciting countries. After a very short dialogue, they end up in a video chat where pictures of masturbation are shown and they are tricked into doing the same. Then it immediately turns to blackmail, where they are sent to their own friends list with a threat that the photos will be shared and a demand for payment to avoid it, says Thale Parker to Nettavisen.
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– What we have also seen is that the pictures and videos of these boys have been spread when they have refused to pay. The material has been disseminated openly, directly to their friends and families, says Parker.
– Closed profile and hidden friends list
The police officer says it is important that children who experience this do not pay and immediately break contact.
– We also see that those who pay in money only get even more money demands, and that the threats continue, says Parker.
She says it is very important that children and young people who experience this make contact with someone they trust and talk about what has happened.
– I would also recommend children to have a closed profile and hidden friend list on social media. They should be careful with people they don’t know. If a pretty girl makes direct contact and wants to engage them in a sexualized chat, it is important to remember that if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
Debate: We have no idea what is happening
Police officer Thale Parker tells Nettavisen that they have no exact figures on how many Norwegian children and young people are exposed to this type of blackmail.
– We have no concrete figures, but after we went out last autumn and warned against this, we have seen a stable reporting of such cases. We have seen an increase in sexual blackmail with a financial motive over many years, but what we now saw more and more was that the victims were getting younger, as young as 14, says Parker.
– But we also suspect large numbers of blackouts around this, both related to the experiments, and in relation to how much of this is actually carried out. It is connected to the fact that children and young people may feel that this is very difficult to talk about, says Parker.
– In the USA, several suicides among young people are linked to this type of blackmail. Do you see this happening in Norway too?
– We know that it has happened in Norway, but that there are very few cases. We are still concerned that it could happen again. It is therefore important that you have someone to talk to, should you be exposed to sexual blackmail, says police officer Thale Parker to Nettavisen.
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– 5-year-olds shared nude photos
In a rapport from Kripos’ intelligence team for sexual offences, which was published in November last year, it also emerged that both girls and boys as young as 5 to 13 shared nude videos.
In connection with a poll conducted by the Norwegian Media Authority in November last year, almost half of the girls aged 13–14 said that they had been asked to send nude pictures of themselves to others. Four out of ten also stated that they have received nude photos from others.
What should you do when nude photos go astray? The police have collected information about what you should do if nude photos go astray, and what the punishment is for sharing such photos and videos of others here: Divisible?
Contact the police if you are subjected to sexual blackmail online or someone has shared nude photos of you against your will. Here you will find more advice from the police about children and young people’s internet use.
Children and young people can get help and ask questions anonymously about nude photos here: Cross on the neck, ung.no and The emergency telephone for children and young people.
Contact the advisory service slettmeg.no to remove unwanted images. Take screenshots and document who shared, and where and when the image was shared. (Source: The Norwegian Media Authority)
