https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/t...utcome-can-rcna27281

Internet blackmailers are increasingly duping young men and boys into sending them sexually explicit content online by posing as young girls on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram and then extorting them in a scheme known as "sextortion" — and dozens of these cases have ended with the victims taking their own lives, police and child advocates told NBC News.

In a sign of how serious the problem is becoming, the FBI’s field office in Los Angeles released a warning last month aimed directly at the parents of young men caught in the crosshairs of these cyber-criminals who often operate in foreign countries.

“The FBI is receiving an increasing number of reports of adults posing as young girls coercing young boys through social media to produce sexual images and videos and then extorting money from them,” the FBI warning said.

One of those victims was 17-year-old Ryan Last, who lived near San Jose, California. Last died by suicide in February after an extortionist, threatening to post compromising pictures of him on the internet, was demanding more and more money from the teen, his mother, Pauline Stuart, said.

“They wouldn’t give up and he felt he had no choice but to do it to protect his family,” Stuart said of her son. “He loved us so much that he wanted to protect us from the mistake he made.”

Local police forces also report seeing a rise in cases in which blackmailers focus on young men.

“Twenty, 30 years ago, predators would go to a playground or a park to find young victims,” Sgt. Christian Camarillo of the San Jose Police Department told an NBC News Bay Area reporter. “Now, there’s an entire virtual world out there for them to get into and pick their victims that way.”

In Utah, Detective Sgt. John Peirce at the Davis County Sheriff's Office said he has investigated dozens of sextortion cases.

“In at least six instances, someone committed suicide,” he said. “Nationwide, there are hundreds if not thousands of these cases. There are many also not being reported.”

One of the cases Peirce worked on was that of Tevan Tobler, a 16-year-old from Utah who died by suicide in September 2017. His parents recently revealed that their son, an honor student and champion high school wrestler who was also an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had been targeted by a blackmailer from the Ivory Coast.

Tobler’s mother, Tawra Tobler, told the Deseret News that the blackmailer had actually urged her son to take his own life — after taking his last dime.

Peirce said the children are being targeted by a sophisticated criminal group operating overseas.

"It’s definitely a criminal enterprise involving organizations located in countries with which we don’t have extradition treaties," Peirce said. "It’s too sophisticated to be an individual operation."

Those countries include Nigeria, India and, especially, the Ivory Coast, which has long been a center for cybercrime, and where the blackmailers are known as "brouteurs," according to law enforcement and published reports.

In 2014, a former brouteur told a BBC reporter how he operated.

"You [find] yourself a man or a woman who is looking for love,” he said. “Then you start chatting and exchange photos.”

Once that happens, the brouteur imposes what he calls "the tax" and starts draining the victim's wallet dry.

Uno reverse: I’m unattractive enough that /they/ decide to end it all.

It is not just young fellas!
It plenty of well established fellas have fallen victim to it and paid lots of money in promise not to disclose the video or pics to their friends and family on social media only to require more after a payment is made.

To avoid any future confusion or concerns, I am personally releasing my own nude selfies to every SIGforum member. Gaze upon my glorious visage. Expect the full catalog in your email by end of week.

^^^ Yup. It's not just young fellas.

I understand the scheme is to become friends. Get a list of who you're friends with. Then the blackmail threat has teeth.

It works better with married men.

No sympathy for these dumbasses, young men, married men, whatever.

How hard is to not to post pics of Mr. Weiner on the internet?

And it's not just males being targeted, they do the same thing to women. Some of them even claim they've accessed your webcam (when they haven't) and want money to "not release" the images.

Scammers are gonna scam.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
It is not just young fellas!
It plenty of well established fellas have fallen victim to it and paid lots of money in promise not to disclose the video or pics to their friends and family on social media only to require more after a payment is made.

Just how much money does an online scammer expect to extort from a high school teenager? The real money lies w/ well-established middle-aged men, doesn't it? Guys w/ careers, families, reputations to uphold, deep pockets, etc.

I thought seeing NBC News post the article was ironic. Dateline NBC's popular To Catch a Predator series ended when one of their perps committed suicide when he was confronted in one of their stings. Read about Louis Conradt for more info.

quote:

Originally posted by iron chef:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
It is not just young fellas!
It plenty of well established fellas have fallen victim to it and paid lots of money in promise not to disclose the video or pics to their friends and family on social media only to require more after a payment is made.

Just how much money does an online scammer expect to extort from a high school teenager? The real money lies w/ well-established middle-aged men, doesn't it? Guys w/ careers, families, reputations to uphold, deep pockets, etc.

I thought seeing NBC News post the article was ironic. Dateline NBC's popular To Catch a Predator series ended when one of their perps committed suicide when he was confronted in one of their stings. Read about Louis Conradt for more info.

That was kind of my point.

But I would go to bet that the folks aren’t targeting the poor. I bet they are targeting social media accounts where the fella is flashing around all
the things mommy and daddy’s money buys them.
Knowing many many of these families will pay to keep things quiet and not mess up these boy’s future.

If folks are planning to kidnap for ransom they aren’t going to kidnap the poor kids.

We seem to get several of these a month at my department. The guys always try to gloss over the circumstances surrounding the blackmail before finally admitting to the dick pic. The scammers usually want $50, then $200 and it keeps going up from there.

I always tell these guys "look...the internet has millions of dick pics, there really is no need to add yours." I further explain that if you must send a DP to some random hot chick (that's probably a dude) who wants to be your friend on Snapchat, why not just pick a really impressive one that's already out there on internet? That way, if they send it to a couple of your contacts, so what.

Last month some 19 year old got scammed for a couple hundred. The rookie I was FTO'ing asked the guy for screen shots of the conversation so he could add it to the case file. Moron sent the rookie his dick pics with the screen shots. Then, if that wasn't enough, the rookie uploaded the pics into our computer system...ugh.

Just had an MQT kid kill himself over this scam.
I hope the scum who did this are caught and charged.

We get these all the time, and there's literally nothing we can do. We can't trace them, end even if we could they're almost certainly overseas and unprosecutable. I actually have yet to take a report from a juvenile on one of these...it's all been adults. Mostly college-age, but adults nonetheless.

I have a hard time having any sympathy. With the amount of tech that these people grew up with, it should be pretty clear by now that anything you put out there you can't take back. Keep your dick in your pants and these problems are 100% avoidable. And good grief, if you must send horribly ill-advised dick picks to some random person on the internet, why in the world would you include your FACE in the picture? But they do, and then they call and expect us to be able to make it magically go away. Sorry bud, some hairy fat dude in Russia now has your dick pick with your face in it, your name, and all your contacts...hope it was worth it. Time to delete your Facebook account.

I really wish they'd let me get up in front of the entire student body at the beginning of the year and let me explain to these morons what is going to happen if they do this, but it's a Christian college and the administration would prefer to pretend it doesn't happen.

1. Put tape over your web cam or keep the shutter closed.

2. Never take, post, text any compromising photo, dick pic, etc.

How hard is that?

There was a case in MI 2 months ago, kid 17 or so killed himself over it. He got tripped up in a blackmail scheme, took the permanent fix for a temporary problem.


Yes, guys like naked pictures, not so much the ladies. Don’t bother sending a dick picture to someone trying to win her over. One is better off sending pictures that infer wealth, or the ‘well dressed’ guy.

I think sites are rampant with fake female profiles, working scam routines.