‘They’re after the money:’ Sextortion of teens on the rise in Sask.

Parents across Saskatchewan are being asked to be more aware of what their teenagers are doing online as police warn about a rise in sextortion scams targeting teens.

“As technology advances, so does this scam, basically. And it’s becoming very easy to contact somebody and force them out of some money,” explained Staff Sgt. Scott Lambie with the RCMP’s Major Crimes branch.

Lambie explained the scam: Someone reaches out to a teenager in a chat app pretending to be a girl of a similar age and they become friendly, then the scammer will ask the teen for their Instagram username and to trade nude photos.

“And then, once that’s done, they’ve got them because these teens have got their nudes out there and somebody’s going to distribute them to all their friends lists online unless they send (the scammer) some cash or some gift cards,” said Lambie.

He said it’s easy to be taken in by these scams, and they’re changing and evolving as social media changes.

The victims have been of any gender, between the ages of 13 and 16.

Police report rates of online child sexual exploitation have more than doubled in Canada since tracking began in 2014.

The RCMP said that in the 2022-23 fiscal year, its Internet Child Exploitation unit responded to 931 cases, and it expected numbers to rise to more than 1,000 in the 2023-24 year. However, the actual incidences could be much higher as this kind of crime is under-reported to police.

Lambie said that when he started this work 10 years ago, these kinds of reports were few and far between.

“They were one-offs. They’d show up every once in a while, but now we’re getting them monthly, for sure, but weekly. They’re really prevalent right now,” he explained.

He never expected it to evolve into what it is today.

Lambie said parents need to talk to their kids, tell them what’s going on and to be aware of the scam. He said parents should also tell teens to never send any nudes to anyone online – pointing out that, technically, if they do, they’re making child pornography.

He said, with artificial intelligence technology now, someone could take a clothed selfie of a victim and make it look like a nude photo, so he advised to not send any pictures to anyone the teens don’t know.

It’s also advised that people don’t answer messages or accept follow or friend requests from people they don’t know, and always answer video calls with the camera turned off until they know who the person calling is.

If this does happen to someone, Lambie said they shouldn’t pay the extortion price.

“They’re after the money; (that) is what they’re after. They don’t really care about your picture – they’ll probably delete it afterwards anyway, but they want the money,” he said.

He said parents will notice their kids acting differently and wanting money in a hurry if they’re in this situation.

It’s also recommended that victims stop all communication with the scammer and keep all correspondence.

Lambie said people shouldn’t be afraid to report this to police and to know there may be ways to call back photos that were sent. He also recommended cybertip.ca as a resource for parents.

Cybertip.ca is run by The Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

Lindsay Lobb is with the centre and said growth in this kind of crime has been exponential over the past five years. She said that five years ago, the centre was getting fewer than 10 reports of sextortion a week; now it’s up to 10 a day.

She said it can be a very violating and humiliating experience for many young people. Once it’s dealt with, some teens are ready to move forward but Lobb said others can feel very isolated and alone.

“There is so much shame and blame around this type of victimization,” she explained. “What’s important for these young kids to remember is that this isn’t going to define your life, and your life is not over, and there are people who are here to help you.”

Lobb said there are ways to potentially identify and take down images once they’re out there, talking about the centre’s Project Arachnid.

“We come from an age where we heard (that) once your picture is out there, there’s nothing you can do about it, and that’s really no longer true. It’s really important for people to understand that there are steps that can be taken. There is hope in these situations,” Lobb said.