ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A new survey of more than 6,000 teenagers shows a staggering increase in the number of young people being targeted by sextortion schemes.
Those are online scams where criminals pose as a romantic interest and encourage their target to share nude photos. Once received, they then threaten to publish those pictures unless they get paid.
A brand new survey from Snapchat finds that among Gen Z teenagers and young adults, 65% say they have been subjected to attempted sextortion scams.
Earlier this month, St. Peterburg Police warned about a staggering increase in these crimes in our area. It's twice the number reported to them over the same time period last year.
“A lot of them are younger,” Det. Henry Snowden said. “Even if they're not young, if they are over the adult age, it's the fear. It's the embarrassment. They don't want their personal images or, you know, their inappropriate images to be out there for everyone to see. So, they will spend money. We've had cases where people have spent up to thousands of dollars to these people. To keep them from exposing these images.”
Detectives say these cases can be difficult to prosecute since the criminals can be in different countries and use technology to block their true identities. However, they still encourage anyone targeted to come forward and report it.
The FBI says last year law enforcement agencies received over 7,000 reports of online sextortion. Most of those targeted, they say, were boys.
In at least a dozen known cases the young targets of these crimes have died by suicide.
Experts advise never responding to someone you don't know online, never taking or sending pictures of your private parts, don't switch media platforms to chat with someone and report online threats to parents and or police.