GARDAI are probing a new case of sextortion after a teenager was ordered to pay €1,000 to stop an intimate picture of him being shared online.
The boy was tricked into sending a nude picture of himself to the evil perpetrator via Snapchat.
The vile fraudster used a second phone to photograph the image before the photo automatically deleted on the app.
The blackmailer befriended the youngster via Instagram and used a sexy image of a woman with a fake name to lure him in.
They spoke online until the conversation got raunchy and the child was encouraged to send a nude pic, which he eventually did.
The sextortionist then threatened to share the image to all his friends if they didn’t get paid.
The traumatised child was given two days to come up with the cash last week.
But eventually he told his parents who went straight to the police and reported the incident.
The family, from rural Ireland, refused to pay the money and now Gardai are trying to track down those behind the illicit scam.
The image thankfully wasn’t published online and those responsible shut down all contact once they were informed the Gardai were involved.
A friend of the family said: “This attempt of sextortion caused great distress to this young man and his family.
“Thankfully he had the good sense to tell his parents who contacted the Gardai.
“This type of sinister blackmail is happening more and more to young people online and the family would like to tell everybody out there to be very careful.
“The message to young people is whatever you do, don’t send an intimate picture of yourself online to people you don’t know and have only recently befriended. You think you can trust them – but you can’t.
“And while Snapchat deletes pictures straight away after you have shown them, you do not know if the person on the other end is there with a second phone taking a picture. That is the problem. Who do you trust?”
Sextortion cases
Gardai confirmed that they currently have 164 charges and summons arising from 106 cases of sextortion and the illegal publication of intimate images online without the permission of the owner of those photographs and videos.
The defendants are all being tried under Coco’s Law– the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 which became law in Ireland in February 2021.
