RCMP issues warnings about sextortion schemes

MERRITT – With social media becoming bigger by the day, Merritt RCMP is warning the public about a new type of extortion, called sextortion.

“That’s when it involves you sharing photographs and personal stuff like that and someone uses that against you in a demand for money,” said Marlene Jones, Community Policing Office Coordinator.

This scheme is becoming one of the most popular scam.

“They [officials] say they get 70 reports per week on this,” said Jones. “Well this is most prevalent with young males, so that’s who is targeted, and once they target you they demand money. If it is females involved, they usually demand more photographs and that just grows and gets to be a larger problem. It can be anyone really, I think if you look back into the news there’s been some pretty big examples where that has happened to adults as well.”

Not only asking for money or more pictures, police said these individuals will also ask for gift cards, from places such as Walmart, Apple, or Amazon.

Officers advise the best way to avoid being a victim to sextortion is to just stop right away, which is sometimes easier said than done.

“The number one thing is to just totally stop the activity and what you are doing no matter the demands, no matter the threats, no matter how real they seem in the moment just shut it down,” said Blake Chursinoff, Community Policing Officer. “Unfortunately once you click send that photo or image or whatever is gone and out there forever.”

Even if the scammer seems convincing with their threats, Chursinoff echoed that typically they are blank threats.

“Fortunately, we see a lot of circumstances where the person on the other end, which is usually never the person you think it is and usually they’re across an ocean, they have no access really to even who you are.”

If someone falls victim to one of these scams, police don’t have a lot of action they can take, that’s why being informed and prepared ahead of time is key.

“In terms of the police, there’s not a lot we can do, just due to tracking IP addresses and user names and it’s all coded and imbedded, so that’s difficult,” added Chursinoff. “I think another big part is just talking about it, making it an open conversation with your kids. If your kid has access to an iPad or a phone and you have Wi-Fi in your house it is a good conversation to have.”