The F.B.I is warning teenagers and their parents about a financial scam targeting young boys.
It’s called sextortion, and it isn’t new- it’s been on the rise for several years. The F.B.I. says they discovered many perpetrators are targeting young boys ages 14-17 by posing as girls and offering to exchange nude photos.
Sextortion scams are scary for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they can happen right under the noses of parents. Teenagers can be targeted even in the same room as their parents, in their own bedroom, or pretty much anywhere they can take a phone or computer. Secondly, the scams are often successful because victims are too embarrassed and scared to tell someone what happened.
Here’s how these sextortion scams work: The victim meets a girl online, often through social media or playing video games. In recent cases, a girl will begin sending flirty messages to the teenage boy, and eventually she offers to exchange nude photos with him.
If the boy sends a nude photo of himself,…
