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(Trends Wide) — At least 3,000 minors, mostly boys, were targeted by trafficking schemes. sextortion financial this year. This is a dramatic increase from previous years, the US Department of Justice announced Monday in a public safety alert.
Through social media, predators usually begin to communicate their targets before moving the conversation to another platform where they primarily use direct messages, according to the Justice Department. Thus, they trick victims into providing them with explicit material, and then demand money, sometimes thousands of dollars, and threaten to deliver the images to the victim’s family and friends.
“The FBI has seen a horrifying increase in reports of fraud schemes. sextortion targeted at minor children, and the fact is that many of the victims who are afraid to report are not even included in those numbers,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.
At least a dozen victims have died by suicide as a result of these crimes, according to the department.
The schemes of sextortionTargeting mainly children ages 14 to 17 — though there are also 10-year-olds — they emerged largely in West African countries, including Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, according to the department. It is not clear if these cells of perpetrators are connected.
Wray said the FBI needs “parents and caregivers to work with us to prevent this crime before it happens and help kids report it if it does happen.”
“Victims may feel that there is no way out; it is up to all of us to reassure them that they are not in trouble, that there is hope and that they are not alone,” said the director.
