Nottinghamshire Police have today (Monday) launched a major campaign against sextortion, with a clear message for victims: “It’s not your fault. Don’t panic. Help and support is available.”
Today’s launch comes as police reveal that the number of victims – most of them young men aged between 14 and early 20s – has passed 100 this year. The number of sextortion reports have been rising in recent years, from 80 in 2019 to 547 in 2023.
Describing what “sextortion” means, police said that the “nasty and manipulative crime” usually involves criminals disguising themselves as young and attractive women online to gain the trust of unsuspecting victims.
“Criminals will often follow a young person’s social media accounts or send them friend requests pretending to be a ‘young and attractive’ woman”, police said. “They will usually try and identify with the victim through private messages, such as mentioning they are studying at a particular university and school.
“The conversation can last for days before it takes a dark turn.
“Criminals will gain their trust and attempt to progress things to the next level, often sending intimate pictures of the person they think they are talking to, encouraging them to do the same. However, once they have an intimate picture or video of the victim, they will immediately use this material against them.”
The criminals then use the intimate images to blackmail the victims, threatening to send the image to the victims family, friends, schools and colleges.
Criminals behind the scam have demanded sums of up to £5,000. Police say that some victims have paid up to £1,000. One university student who fell victim to sextortion was left without money to pay his rent.
Nottinghamshire Police say that a team of detectives investigate every report of sextortion and offer support to each victim; but investigations are hampered because the IP address – the digital footprint indicating where the threats originated – are based overseas. This, the police said, “makes it incredibly difficult to prosecute the criminals behind these blackmail cases.”
So they are focusing on prevention to prevent more young people falling victim to this scam. Police schools’ officers will be delivering sextortion presentations to children across the county, warning them of the dangers and on how to stay safe online. And an awareness video has been produced, which will be promoted through a QR code poster in bars, pubs, nightclubs and other licensed venues across Nottingham city centre.
“This must be a horrific experience for victims”, Inspector Dan Evans, a member of Nottinghamshire Police’s public protection team, said. “These criminals use well-practiced and sophisticated tactics. They know how to set up profiles that look legitimate and know just what to say to entice a young person in.
“I believe the reports we have received are just the tip of the iceberg. There will be many victims out there who have never reported sextortion to police, maybe through shame and embarrassment.
“But they have nothing to be ashamed about. They have done nothing wrong. The criminal has lured them into a false sense of security, essentially groomed them, and then threatened to use what they thought was a private and intimate conversation against them.”
Inspector Evans urged victims never to pay their blackmailers. “Once a payment is completed, they will always come back asking for more”, he said. “They won’t stop. They will say this is the last payment and then start the cycle again. They know what they have on you is enough to make you worry about the consequences.”
Victims’ Stories
One sextortion victim, a 22 year old student at Nottingham Trent University, explained how he was snared by what he thought was a young woman around the same age as him. They chatted for a few days on Snapchat. “she then started saying ‘if I want to play’ and the conversation became sexual”, the student said. “I sent her a picture of me without a top on. She then started sending me more [pictures] and she was fully naked. We carried on exchanging pictures.”
As soon as the student sent a picture of his genitals, the trap was sprung. “She then said: ‘I have your nudes now and I am going to send it to your friends and family.’ She said: ‘I am going to send it to your university and ruin your life.’
“She sent me all the pictures back that I had sent. I don’t know how she had manged to screen shot them without my knowledge because Snapchat tells you if someone has taken a screenshot.
“She said ‘if you don’t comply with us and take the call we will send the pictures.’
“I received a Snapchat call and it was a male voice. . . He asked for £500 and asked me to send the money to an account.”
He sent £300 but the threats continued.
“This has made me feel terrible, I couldn’t sleep. I have been stressed out from the threats and I have not been able to eat”, he said. “I have also been struggling with university and I am unable to study for my assignments due to the stress.”
Another victim, a 29 year old man, was trapped when he was sat home drinking. “I went on Instagram and saw that I had a friend request. I don’t normally add strangers on social media but decided to accept it on this occasion. The account messaged me first. We talked for a while and got on well.
“I felt like something wasn’t right but carried on. We got more intimate and she was sending videos that could only be viewed once on Instagram direct message so I believed the videos had to be real.
“We exchanged photos and videos and then I received a message saying they have all my details and if I didn’t pay them they would send the photos of me to everyone on my Instagram”.
The scammers then called him. Instead of the woman he thought he was talking to, it was two men. “They sent a photo to me of one of them holding a phone with the photos I sent on it. They were asking for Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Paypal, and they sent over bank details. The males were hovering over the send button of my photos if I didn’t send money.
“I sent £1,600 and then the males asked for more money. They wanted thousands of pounds.”
Another victim, an 18 year old woman, went through an eight month ordeal before finally finding the strength to contact the police. She was targeted with a man on Instagram. “After speaking for a little while he has convinced me to send him some intimate images and videos”, she said. “I have then sent them and he has then created a collage of them and started asking me for money, initially in the form of gift cards and then also via Paypal.
“They have told me that if I didn’t reply to them, they would expose me and ruin my life.
“Since this time, they have asked for various amounts of money from me and have been saying each time that they will then delete the video and I will be free, but this has not happened, and they have continued to keep asking for more and more money.”
She has sent around £1,000 to the criminals. “The whole incident has affected me quite a lot mentally”, she said. “It has given me sleepless nights where I cried myself to sleep. I have been okay in my day-to-day life but whenever I received a message from them it worried me for the rest of the day.
“The thought of the content being released worries me, as I would worry how friends and family would react to it if they found out. I would almost feel like a disappointment. I feel like I would have to lock myself away.”
Police are investigating all three incidents and offering support to the victims. Their accounts in this article were provided by the police as part of the awareness campaign.
Advice from Nottinghamshire Police
Tips and advice to keep you safe from Sextortion:
If you are chatting to new people online:
- Review your privacy settings. Criminals are less likely to target you if they can’t see who your friends and family are.
- If you’re not comfortable speaking to the person or being contacted by someone you don’t know, end the chat quickly and remove them from your channels.
- Be careful of those trying to start a conversation / relationship with you very quickly online – they may even send you a sexual image first.
- Be cautious about new people you are speaking to online – can you validate they are who they say they are. If you can’t, remove them from your channels.
- Never share sexual images or information about yourself if you are not comfortable or feel under pressure to do. Criminals involved in Sextortion will consistently ask for that naked picture or video of you and are less interested in other conversation.
If you are a victim of sextortion, it’s not your fault.
- Don’t panic, help and support is available.
- Stop all communication with the offender immediately.
- Don’t pay, even if you are tempted, as there is no guarantee that this will stop the threats.
- Save the evidence: take screenshots, save messages and images, make a note of usernames, email addresses, phone numbers and bank account numbers.
- Collect URL links to where your images or information is being shared online.
Most social media sites have rules against sharing intimate content without consent. You should be able to get the material removed. If you’ve paid the person, consider telling your bank. They may not be able to get any money back but it helps us and the banks to know it’s happened.
Please report it. We are here to help.
We understand that it might be difficult to report this type of crime to us. We’re here to listen and support you in any way we can. Call 101 or contact us through our online portal.
