Rash Of ‘Sextortion’ Cases Reported To Nashua Police

NASHUA, NH — Police in Nashua are warning parents and residents to be on the lookout for “sextortion” incidents and cases involving children in the city.

Lt. Brian Trefry of the department’s special investigations division warned police had received “an increase” in the number of cases being eyed involving children targeted on social media. He said the recent increase is predominately boys in their teens.

The term “sextortion,” Trefry said, was defined as “a type of blackmail used by offenders to acquire additional sexual content from the child, coerce them into engaging in sexual activity, or to obtain money from the child.” The trend is for the predators to disguise their real identity while showering a number of potential victims with friend requests at the same time. The perps often use multiple online profiles on various platforms and may exhort victims to move within platforms after gaining their confidence. After befriending people, the predators then send sexually explicit photos and initiate conversations.

“This conversation eventually turns to the offender asking the victim to take a sexually explicit photograph of themselves and to send it back to the offender,” he said. “Once a photograph or video is sent to the offender, they will then blackmail the victim by stating if money or gift cards are not sent they will electronically send the photograph or video to their entire school, or list of friends, and expose their identity.”

Most of the perps are believed to have originated outside of the United States, Trefry said.

Police are urging parents, residents, and children to carefully screen who they accept friend requests from and who they interact with on social media platforms. Everyone, he said, should be cautious when sending images online since, once an image is sent, it has the potential for being online forever. Report any sexually explicit photos received online to the social media company and if they appear to be criminal in nature, contact police.

For more information and resources, visit stopsextortion.com and icactaskforce.org/Pages/InternetSafety.aspx.

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