Sextortion alert issued as number of young people targeted in scams surges

Teachers warned to be on lookout for victims of blackmail in UK schools
Teachers warned to be on lookout for victims of sextortion in UK schools
PA Wire
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Growing numbers of children and other young people are being targeted by organised criminals threatening to post nude “sextortion” images of them online, the National Crime Agency warned on Monday.

In an unprecedented public alert sent to teachers today, the NCA said that some of the images were real photos being obtained from the victims contacted online by crime gang members posing as a young person.

It said others were fake and were being created by the use of artificial intelligence or digital manipulation.

The law enforcers added that most of the victims were male teenagers, aged between 14 and 18, and that blackmail was sometimes occurring within an hour of the initial exchange.

The agency also said that many of the crime gangs involved are based in West Africa, with others located in South-East Asia and that it wanted teachers and other education professionals to advise parents and young people about how best to protect themselves from the growing threat.

James Babbage, the NCA’s director general for threats, said that “sextortion” cases had more than doubled last year in the US and that the “callous crime” was also posing a growing danger in this danger.

“Sextortion causes immeasurable stress and anguish, and we know there are adults and young people who have devastatingly taken their own lives as a result,” he said.

“Perpetrators have no concern for victims or the lives that might be destroyed in the process. Their sole motivation is financial gain.

“A lot of victims feel responsible but we need them to know this is absolutely not the case; you are not to blame and help and support is available. As well as raising awareness with this alert, we want to encourage young people to report incidents to an adult they trust, the police or to the CEOP Safety Centre.

Tom Tugendhat, the Home Office’s security minister, added: ”Sextortion destroys lives. It is often driven by highly sophisticated organised crime groups who exploit vulnerable people for profit.

“It’s vital that technology companies take responsibility for the safety of their users by implementing stronger safeguards on their platforms.”

In today’s alert, the NCA says that sextortion involves “people being forced into paying money or meeting another financial demand, after an offender has threatened to release nude or semi-nude photos of them” and that image could be “a real photo taken by the victim, or a fake image created of them by the offender.”

It says the methods used by crime gangs to target the victims include hacking into online accounts of people the victim knows to make contact.

Other cases involve criminals posing as a child that the victim does not know or telling the victim that their account has been hacked and the blackmailer has access to their images, contacts and other personal details.

Payment demands include asking for money to be sent or purchases to be made on the offender’s behalf.

Today’s warning comes after the number of sextortion cases reported to the US National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) rose to 26,718 last year, more than double the 10,731 recorded 12 months earlier.

More than nine out of ten UK sextortion cases dealt with by the Internet Watch Foundation last year were male, mostly young, although the NCA emphasised that victims could be of either sex or any age.