ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — St. Petersburg police are warning about an "alarming" increase in online sexting extortion, or blackmail, involving people's nude photos.
Since the start of the year, the department says detectives have investigated 34 cases involving underage people and adults. It's more than twice the number that was reported to authorities last year during the same time period.
This is what typically happens, according to police: A person meets the offender on a dating app and, after sending private photos, the crime begins. The offender then tells the person they'll publicly post the images to friends and family unless they pay.
The department shared a graphic warning people of sending nude photos to people they don't know.:
"Most important advice. Do not do it," Det. Henry Snowden said. "We've had cases where people have spent up to thousands of dollars to these people to keep them up from exposing these images."
St. Petersburg police note this scenario is different than "revenge porn" in that there is no in-person relationship and the online "partner" is a scammer.
Publishing nude images of another person while including their personal identifying information without their consent is considered "revenge porn," which is punishable by up to a year in jail and/or up to $1,000 in fines, according to Florida law.
Penalties for violating the state's extortion laws include up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.
Investigators say not only are adults being scammed, but detectives are also seeing children being encouraged to send explicit photos.
"We've seen approximately 67% increase from this time last year for children and for this time last year in adults, we've seen an approximately 44% increase," Snowden said.
Authorities are asking parents to take time to talk to their kids and remind them not to take private pictures — and certainly don’t send them to anyone online.
Detectives say there are almost certainly more cases than what are being reported since many are too embarrassed to come forward. Still, they ask anyone who feels that they have become a target to contact the police department.
"Come forth. Our job is to bring justice. Our job is to figure out who is doing this to you," Snowden said. "But my biggest advice — my biggest advice would be don't do it at all.”