Rexburg Police warn of rising ‘sextortion’ scams targeting local youth
REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI) — The Rexburg Police Department is sounding the alarm over a sharp increase in “sextortion” cases, a digital blackmail scheme that investigators say is increasingly targeting high school and college-aged victims in the area.
Detective John Bone is a digital forensics investigator with the department and is concerned with the number of cases he has seen and the mental health impact it is making on community members.
“The bad guys are using those pictures to intimidate the person to send them money,” Bone said. “We’re seeing an uptick in that in the area, and we want to make sure our citizens are knowledgeable about it”.
Police say the scam typically begins on social media apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. The scammers will often create fraudulent profiles to "catfish" young adults, luring them into sharing explicit photos before blackmailing the individual into giving them money.
Once the photos are sent, the scammers demand payment, often starting around $100 under the threat of sending the images to the victim's family, friends, or employers.
“My biggest thing is if someone's demanding money, just stop all communications.” Bone said “There's opportunities where you can disconnect and turn your profile off. They will threaten they're going to send it to people that you know or send it to employers. In my experience, I haven't necessarily seen that actually happen.”
Among young adults, Bone says males are targeted more than females.
“It's typically people impersonating females and then catfishing or luring these young males into these types of relationships where they think it's nice and safe. In reality, it's just to expose them and to extort them.” Bone warns.
The department issued a warning through their social media feed, but was particularly concerned about the mental health toll these cases take on young people. Bone emphasized that the situation, while stressful, is not life-ruining and that help is available.
“We’ve unfortunately seen people take their own lives because they believe this sextortion is going to ruin everything,” Bowen said. “In reality, we can help you, we can document it, and we can get past this. It’s just a bump in the road.”
Police are urging anyone targeted by these scammers to stop all communication immediately and not send any money, as payments often lead to further demands. Also Block the individual and deactivate the social media account to cut off the scammer's access to the victim's contact list. And finally Report the incident to local law enforcement.
For parents and youth seeking more information, the department recommends utilizing resources from the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Idaho task force. For more information, click HERE.
