A new report found a surge in financial "sextortion" schemes targeting teenage boys primarily through Instagram and other social media platforms, USA Today reports. Offenders threaten victims with compromising imagery, seeking cash in exchange. The report, released Monday by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and technology nonprofit Thorn, analyzed more than 15 million reports made to the NCMEC's hotline from 2020 to 2023. The report found that sextortion incidents have significantly climbed, with reports of online enticement increasing by 82% from 2021 to 2022, when the NCMEC's hotline received over 80,500 reports. The number of incidents continued to grow in the last year at an average of 812 reports per week, data between August 2022 and August 2023 showed. The report found a rising trend in financial sextortion that appears to target boys and involves demands for money.
Over the last several years, concerns over a "unique" form of sextortion have increased. Financial sextortion deviates from sexual or relational demands and instead involves demands specifically for money. In 2023 alone, NCMEC said it received more than 26,700 reports of financial sextortion. "Financial sextortion represents a grave and growing threat to children, especially teenage boys," said Thorn's Julie Cordua. "Unlike traditional forms of sextortion, these perpetrators demand money, leveraging fear and the threat of sharing intimate images to extort their victims before they have time to seek support." The report found that a majority of victims of financial sextortion incidents submitted to NCMEC were teenage boys, 90% between the ages of 14 and 17. The report explains that these incidents frequently involve 'catfishing,' where a perpetrator pretends to be someone else to manipulate a teenage boy into sharing sexual images or videos. The perpetrator then threatens to expose these images to family, friends, or followers unless payment is made. Incidents can quickly escalate from initial contact with the victim to payment in 24 hours or sooner.