Experts warn parents about rising sextortion scams trapping kids online

CHICAGO - It starts with a game, a message, a friend request and ends with a child caught in a crisis.

Reports of extortion—a form of online blackmail—have surged nearly 500% since 2019. Now, we're looking at how the schemes work and the simple moves that could protect your family.

The backstory:

"I've arrested over 300 internet predators in my career for the Naperville Police Department," said Rich Wistocki.

Wistocki is a retired detective and nationally recognized child cyber crimes expert. He trains cops, parents and kids, and recently, one of those teens called for help.

"One of the students that I taught told me that he fell for it, and he's being sextorted, asking him for money," Wistocki said. "I show them what to do and what not to do, and he survived it."

Wistocki says what happened started like so many cases do, with a friendly, maybe flirty hello – in a game, a post, or a friend request that seemed harmless.

"The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has an AI program that runs in every social network, gaming platform, and cloud service in the United States," Wistocki said. "Let's say there's some grooming chat in Roblox. What'll happen is this AI program will flag the conversation."

And once that chat moves, there's no more monitoring. That's why predators push kids to private chats. Then, they collect personal details: your dog's name, your sister's school, etc.

Dig deeper:

In one real case, Wistocki says the predator used 30 fake accounts to gather information, all to use against the child later.

"In one account, he says, oh, what kind of dog you have? In another account, they talk about babysitting. Oh, is this your sister? Where does she go? In another account, he talks about the parents," Wistocki said.

Then comes the photo. Not theirs, but an image taken from another victim.

And then, the line.

"If someone sends you the text message, now, you owe one pic, you are about to be a victim of sextortion," Wistocki said.

And the fear takes over. Kids think they'll get in trouble. They hide it. They panic, and many never report it at all.

"I don't wanna be grounded, I don't wanna be embarrassed, I don't wanna get my phone taken away, so they try to handle it themselves," Wistocki said.

From there, it can escalate fast.

"Do not give in, do not start sending these people money," said Kevin White.

White is a special agent with the FBI Chicago office. He tracks these cases across state lines and international borders.

"Sex extortion is under-reported, even with the amount of cases that we have. For a variety of reasons, people are scared, people don't want to get in trouble," White said.

Big picture view:

The scheme comes mostly from overseas, with a majority tied to criminal groups in West Africa. White says the victims have been as young as 7.

"People think that if I just send them one photo or I just sent them a couple hundred dollars, that it's going to stop," White said.

But the threats keep coming, and that’s where some kids freeze, or worse.

"They're causing a lot of suicide with our teenage boys," Wistocki said.

What you can do:

Convinced they’ve done something wrong, convinced no one can help, White says even if you send a photo, there's still a way out.

"The FBI is committed to going after these bad actors and we are going to find you. We are going to work this case and we will see justice and we'll get it," White said.

But agents need evidence, so don't delete anything.

"Preserve communications. Keep a text message, something on a video game platform. Keep those messages because that is going to give us the best chance to track this person down," White said.

And don't assume you're the only one.

"They cast a wide net. There might be 20 or 30 kids who are the victims of this crime. If we get one person of the 30 coming forward, that leads us to one bad person who's committing all these crimes," White said.

Good to know:

Wistocki tells parents to change the way they talk about tech. Instead of threats, offer what he calls the "golden ticket rule." If your child feels trapped or targeted online, they can come to you: no punishment, no phone taken – just for help.

For tools to start the conversation, go to his websites: besureconsulting.com, juvenilejusticeonline.org, and mycybersafeschool.com.

And for federal resources to report abuse or remove images, head to fbi.gov/sextortion.

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