FBI: 3,000 children face 'sextortion' annually

On Board Online • June 5, 2023

By Alan Wechsler
Special Correspondent

During a recent presentation about the dangers of social media apps, police investigator Chris Smith wanted to demonstrate stranger danger online. With his laptop screen projected to an audience of about 50 parents of school-age children, he logged on to a popular chat site called Omegle, pretending to be a 12-year-old girl.

Within moments, someone joined the chat room and started asking questions: Where was she? (At home.) Was she alone? (Yes, her parents were out.) What was her name?

With age-appropriate misspellings, Smith's character stated how bored she was. The stranger - apparently from the United Kingdom - seemed eager to continue the conversation.

"You see how quickly this happens," Smith said.

An investigator with the Town of Colonie Police, Smith is currently assigned to the Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force out of the FBI's Albany Field Office. He is one of nearly a dozen law enforcement officers from town, sheriff and state police offices who have been reassigned to the field office to address abductions, child pornography, child prostitution and online threats.

"We could have 100 people; it's not enough," Smith told an audience in the South Colonie Central School District on March 29.

Many apps and online video games provide ample opportunity for strangers to begin chatting with participants. Police have seen cases where bad actors will begin an innocuous conversation with a victim and then suggest they move the conversation to a more private site. From there, the perpetrator may offer to send money or gifts, or eventually suggest they meet in person.

One threat of great concern: ransom demands after tricking boys or girls into sending naked photos, also known as "sextortion."

There were 7,000 reported cases of sextortion in the United States last year, including 3,000 minors, according to the FBI. There have been 12 reported cases of kids committing suicide over the threat of revealing their naked pictures, including one reported on the front page of On Board in 2021 (see 'Sextortion' threatens students, claims lives at bit.ly/3nUELVg ).

The Syracuse Post-Standard described such an incident in a May 8 article entitled, "How a girl's brave call to 911 led to arrest of CNY man who police say extorted kids for naked photos."

"The man, posing as one of her friends, gained access to the 13-year-old girl's social media account and stole naked photos of her," the newspaper reported. "The man threatened to release the photos to her family and friends if she didn't take and post a video of herself stripping."

The girl refused, and the photos were sent to her friends. Then the girl called 911.

Snapchat sent the girl a message with the man's IP address that she turned over to police, which led to a search warrant. Police found more than 50,000 photos of boys and girls on the computer of a 24-year-old Onondaga County man, who was arrested and charged with nine felonies and three misdemeanors.

"She was courageous to come forward despite peer pressure, shame and embarrassment,'' Manlius police Sgt. Ken Hatter said of the girl. "She stepped up and became the voice for others so this man could be stopped."

Sextortion ploys often come from overseas IP addresses - especially Russia and West Africa, according to FBI agents. Many cases involve a perpetrator who pretends to be a teen girl, then targets a teen boy. The perp sends a naked picture of a girl, falsely claiming it's a selfie. "She" then asks the boy to send a similar picture back. If he complies, the perp threatens to send the boy's naked picture to his entire contact list unless money is sent to an online account.

In one recent incident a victim was asked for $700 initially, Smith said. He paid, and then the perps demanded more.

So what can be done to make social media use safer? Making students aware of such ploys can help, as well as encouraging caution when interacting with anonymous contacts online. Parents may want to limit the number of apps with chat functions used by their children.

Smith suggested a contract between parents and children, agreeing to what's acceptable. The contract would outline parents' behavioral expectations and the consequences for breaking them. The policy could also be adjusted over time, for instance, giving kids more autonomy as they grow older.

"It tells a child what they're allowed to use, which apps they're allowed to download," he said. "This is where your knowledge of apps comes into play." Especially for younger children, parents may want to know the passcodes for all the apps on their child's phone.

When examining a child's phone, parents should check cloud storage, photo galleries and deleted items for any red flags. They should also check for hidden phone "vaults," where kids might keep materials they don't want their parents to see. Note that some vaults have icons that hide their purpose (e.g., a calculator).

Finally, Smith said, be active with supervision, including scheduled times when you examine their phones.

"Remember: it's your device and you're paying for it," he said. "Kids will find loopholes and there should be consequences when they break the rules."

A potential consequence, he said, could be one week without access to the device if they are using an app they shouldn't be.

Other suggestions: start early (kids are already using these programs as young as age 8), keep the rules simple, demonstrate good online behavior and know the names of your child's friends (they should not have thousands of "friends" in their contact list - there's no way they could know that many personally). Parents might also consider keeping phones outside of bedrooms at night.

But at the same time, he said, it's important to make sure the kids feel safe in coming to the parent in case there's a problem, and know that they won't be punished. He also doesn't recommend taking away the devices permanently, as children will likely find another way to access the apps that parents won't know about.

If a parent discovers their child is involved in a sextortion incident or other potentially dangerous interactions, the FBI suggests a few steps:

• Don't take a screenshot of the offender. Many apps will report a screenshot to the user, scaring off an offender before police can get involved.
• Don't engage the perp, delete the conversation or turn off the phone.
• Contact local police or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov or the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov .

Be sure to provide as much detail as possible in any report. "This is a priority for us," Smith said. "If you think there's an issue, we need you to report it."