CSPD issues warning to community about “sextortion” scammers

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) is warning community members to be aware of “sextortion” scammers impersonating law enforcement working for the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit.

According to CSPD, sextortion is a form of child exploitation where children are threatened or blackmailed most often associated with producing an explicit image. The department said that in these cases, victims are interacting with someone online which eventually leads to sharing an explicit image with someone they thought they knew or trusted. In many cases, they are targeted by individuals they met online who obtained the images through deceit, coercion, or some other method. CSPD said the victim is then informed that to remove themselves from the situation, they must send money, a money order, or a gift card to the address of the scammer.

CSPD said one common sextortion trend targets boys between 14 and 17 years old. Adult predators pretending to be young girls fake romantic interest in the victims through gaming platforms, apps, and social media sites. The department added that the predators carrying out this crime have honed their techniques and approaches to maximize their chances of success. CSPD said the following are some common tactics these predators use to entice victims:

• Developing a false rapport with the victim.
• Secretly recording explicit videos and messages during chats.
• Using multiple identities to contact the child.
• Pretending to be younger or a member of the opposite sex.
• Hacking accounts to steal sexual images.
• Threatening to commit suicide if the victim refuses to send images.
• Visiting public social media profiles to find out more about the victim, including accessing the victim’s friend list and searching for other personal information that may harm the victim’s reputation.

According to CSPD, a variety of names of local law enforcement officers including ICAC detectives have been used in these predatory scams, and the scammers claim to work locally or from various agencies nationwide.

If you or someone you know is a victim, help is available.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline (CyberTipline.org) gives the public and electronic service providers the ability to report suspected child sexual exploitation, including sextortion and online enticement.

After NCMEC completes its review of a tip it receives, it compiles a report that becomes available to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.  Let NCMEC help get images of you down. Visit MissingKids.org/IsYourExplicitContentOutThere to learn more.   

NCMEC also offers a service called Take It Down, which helps remove nude, partially nude or sexually explicit photos and videos of underage people by assigning a unique digital fingerprint, called a hash value, to the images or videos. Online platforms can use those hash values to detect these images or videos on their public or unencrypted services and take action to remove this content. (takeitdown.ncmec.org/)