HAMPTON ROADS, Va. — Sextortion is a growing problem as new cases emerge every week in Hampton Roads.
Experts say sextortion happens when someone threatens to share nude or explicit pictures or videos, and in many cases, they demand money.
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The WTKR News 3 Investigative Team uncovered several local recent sextortion cases. In two separate cases, two men sent nude pictures to people they were flirting with online.
Court documents state that one guy said he was just trying to “mess around." In both cases, the people on the other end of the online flirting threatened to send the images to the men’s family members if they did not sent money.
It states that both victims sent them a few hundred dollars before getting the police involved.
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The WTKR News 3 Investigative Team sat down with leaders at Samaritan House to discuss sextortion.
“Everything we do now is really online. With social media and gaming apps and texting and all these smart devices and smart phones, there’s a huge uptick, especially among young people,” said Meredith Williams, Samaritan House Crisis Services.
Crime Analyst Richard James worked as a detective for 20 years. He shared the following advice: “I would never recommend sending photographs of yourself in a compromising possession or nudity to anybody.”
In another case uncovered by the WTKR News 3 Investigative team, a woman told police she got Instagram messages from people warning that nude videos of her were posted on a foreign website that showed her in sexual acts. It states people were even repeatedly calling her workplace to tell her about the images.
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We continue to look at different aspects of sextortion after the FBI reported seeing an increase in schemes targeting boys. The FBI says in these cases, the criminals were trying to get money.
The National Center for Missing and exploited Children said in 2022 they saw an 82% increase in sextortion cases.
“Don’t ever give in to somebody requesting more sexual videos, photos because it will not stop there,” said Williams. “They will continue to seek out money. They will continue to seek out more videos.”
In a different kind of case, Seth Miller called police and said he was the victim of extortion. But when police started investigating, they say they allegedly found child pornography and inappropriate conversations with teens on his phone, according to a search warrant. It stated the person on the other end of the conversation started to demand money.
The FBI says sextortion can happen in many different ways, but they warn people of all ages to be careful what you send.
“Once you put it out there, it’s out there. When you put it on the internet, when you send it through a text, it’s no longer between you and that person,” said Williams.
They say in some cases, the victim, at one point, trusted the person who is now exploiting them.
“It’s heartbreaking because there’s so much shame because it all started with something they willingly did,” said Williams.
Experts shared the following advice: talk to kids about sextortion, report all cases to authorities, pay attention to red flags, don’t delete anything, and save all screenshots because it can help in an investigation.
