FBI warns about sextortion on popular apps

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - The FBI said sextortion’s part of a new scheme to get money from minors and said its happening to teens in Middle Tennessee.

According to the FBI, bad actors overseas save real photos of minors posted online and then edit their faces onto explicit photos.

The suspect then sends the compromising photos to the minor and threatened to send it to the minor’s friends and family if they don’t send the perpetrator the money through Venmo or Zelle.

The FBI said they’re demanding anywhere from $200 to $1,000 and are likely doing this to many kids simultaneously.

The best advice the FBI has for parents is to make sure kids’ social media accounts are private and encourage them to not accept requests or talk to people online that they don’t know.

“With the deepfake technology, they are able to make sextortions scalable. They don’t have to spend the time to groom their victims and build the rapport to get them to send the image. If they make contact with that minor, and that minor says I am not sending you an image, and they create one, they have all they need at that point,” officials with the FBI weighed in.

Analysts said they are finding that the perpetrators are mainly out of Nigeria. The incidents first popped up on the FBI’s radar in July and so far they have only seen photos, no videos yet.

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