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The National Crime Agency has issued an alert to education professionals following a considerable increase in global cases of financially motivated sexual extortion – a type of online blackmail widely known as ‘sextortion’. Sextortion involves people being forced into paying money or meeting another financial demand, after an offender has threatened to release photos of them. This could be a real photo taken by the victim, or a fake image created of them by the offender. Advice to parents and carers if their child says that someone is trying to trick, threaten or blackmail them online: Don’t pay, do stop contact and block: you may be tempted to pay, but there is no guarantee that this will stop the threats. As the offender’s motive is to get money, once you have shown you can pay, they will likely ask for more and blackmail may continue. If you have paid, don’t panic but don’t pay anything more. Help your child to stop all communication with the offender and block them on any accounts that they have been contacted on.Avoid deleting anything: try not to delete anything that could be used as evidence such as messages, images, telephone numbers, and bank account details.Report to the police: call 101 or 999 if there is an immediate risk. For more information please see the National Crime Agency website and the Devon & Cornwall Police website. |
