VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Maggie Southall Bartz knew something was up when she says she started getting messages on Instagram.
An account she didn't recognize was claiming to know something about her.
Then, she says the account messaged her and sent her 12 nude images of her.
"My heart completely dropped. It was so disturbing. I wanted to throw up. My heart was beating so fast," Bartz recently recounted to News 3.
It turns out the images were fake.
"These are modeling pictures that I've done before, so I'm very familiar with the pictures. I had seen them a million times. I just hadn't seen them with nakedness," she said.
Bartz is 18 now and from Virginia Beach.
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She says the images someone altered were from when she was younger and still a minor.
"Having that sent to you and knowing it's not real - but someone has these images and they could be anywhere else. My employer could have these images. My college could have these images," she said.
She believes someone used Artificial Intelligence to doctor the images.
She reported it to police in April.
Virginia Beach Police tell News 3 the investigation into the case remains active.
"I was afraid to tell my parents at first, but I knew this was pretty serious and I was terrified and I wanted something to be done about it," she said.
Virginia Beach Police say these cases can be hard to solve because oftentimes the perpetrators are using computer systems that trace overseas, which can lead to the cases being closed without an arrest.
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Bartz doesn't know why she was targeted, but investigators say oftentimes these types of crimes are meant to exploit people for money or actual nude images of someone.
That's called sextortion. News 3 has reported extensively on the issue, including in April when investigators talked about the problem.
"They're exploiting the children in saying that if you don't send me money we're going to tell your parents. We're going to tell your school what you've done and posted, what you shared with us, but we need money in return," said Dede Wallace, a victim assistance specialist for Homeland Security Investigations, a federal agency.
Bartz wanted to share her story as a warning for others.
"I think it's important to know that this could happen to anybody, literally anybody who has just a couple of dollars and wants to make you have a bad day," she said.
She's hoping to put it behind her as she attends acting school in the fall.
"I'm really going to try and forget about it as anyone would try to in my situation," she said.
