In a news release, the FBI and Justice Department said a large portion of the sextortion crimes originate in Nigeria and the Ivory Coast and are driven by “financial gain,” not sex — a fact that a Justice Department official said makes this trend different than other child exploitation crimes that have historically been motivated by sexual attraction to minors.
The official, and an FBI official, spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with ground rules set at a background briefing.
In the past year, authorities have received more than 7,000 reports related to sextortion and confirmed around 3,000 minor victims in the country, the Justice Department said. These children are contacted on social media platforms from someone using a fake account and typically posing as a female. They set their location to be somewhere near the victims and ask the boys to send sexually explicit photos, then threaten to release the illicit images unless a ransom is paid.
Most of the boys targeted are between the ages of 14 and 17, though officials say they have identified victims as young as 10. The entire interaction — from the point contact is made to when money is demanded — can unfold in just hours.
“This is a level of harassment we haven’t seen recently in regards to our children,” the FBI official said.
Officials did not disclose how much money has been collected in the sextortion schemes, but described them as “successful,” with one official saying that is “why it is happening on the scale that it is.” Still, they said, in many instances the extortioners release the images even if payments are made.
Prosecution of this type of online fraud is difficult, the Justice Department said, because it’s challenging to track down the identity of the predator. And pursuing the cases can be even more complicated in cases when the suspects live abroad and would need to be extradited to be held accountable. But the issue has been receiving more attention.
In October, the Dr. Phil television show featured parents of a child who was sextorted and died by suicide.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has issued steps parents and children can take if they are victims of sextortion. They urged children to seek help before deciding whether to pay the extortioners. They also said parents and children should block the account of the predator, but not delete any communication, because those messages may be helpful to help law enforcement investigations.
