Financial “sextortion” scams are becoming more common, and it appears teenaged boys are paying the price. Anti-child sexual abuse technology company Thorn looked at more than 15 million reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) from 2020 to 2023. The company found that sextortion, especially financial sextortion, is a growing problem.
The FBI defines sextortion as when someone is threatened or coerced into sending sexually explicit images online. Financial sextortion is when someone uses those images as blackmail in exchange for payment.
The study found reports of sextortion went up dramatically after 2022, exceeding 600 a week.
In the past, sextortion schemes frequently targeted girls. However, this new study shows teenaged boys are now the most common victims of financial sextortion. The study found that 14- to 17-year-old boys account for 90% of the financial sextortion reports to NCMEC.
According to the report, the vast majority of child sextortion cases start with “catfishing,” usually in the form of someone posing as another teenager to get teen boys to send sexually explicit images or videos of themselves. The perpetrator will often then threaten to ruin the teen’s life by sharing the pictures with their friends or family if they don’t send money.
The study also found Instagram was the most commonly used social media platform for financial sextortion. The platform was mentioned in more than 80% of threats and used more than half the time to follow through.
Instagram was also the most popular way perpetrators made initial contact with victims. However, the report also noted a trend of using end-to-end encrypted messaging apps, like WhatsApp or Telegram, to communicate with victims. Gift cards and Cash App were identified as the most common payment methods.
Meta, which owns Instagram, said financial sextortion is a “horrific crime” and it is already implementing new features to help protect users.
The company said it is currently testing a feature that would blur nudity in direct messages and developing technology to help identify accounts that may potentially be engaging in sextortion scams.
The report identified Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire as the two countries most often linked to sextortion schemes. It says incidents have been tied to crime networks that operate in these countries.
