Nigerian criminal gangs are at the center of a rising sextortion crisis in the United Kingdom, using social media to blackmail teenage boys, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has revealed.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The NCA stated that the criminals, including some from Ivory Coast, use platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram to impersonate women, tricking boys as young as 14 into sending explicit images. The victims are then blackmailed with threats that their pictures will be exposed to their families, friends, and schools unless they pay approximately £100, Sky News reported on Thursday.
Although child sexual exploitation typically affects more girls, NCA data shows that 90% of online sextortion victims are boys aged 14 to 17. Some cases have tragically led to victims taking their own lives out of fear of exposure.
Marie Smith, senior manager at the NCA’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) command, called the trend “extremely disturbing” and urged victims not to succumb to demands.
“Do not pay – stay calm. We can help. If you pay once, they will just demand more. Nothing is off the cards, and we hope to hold these criminals accountable,” she advised.
NCA’s director of threat leadership, Alex Murray, emphasized that the campaign seeks to educate young boys on the dangers of sextortion and encourage them to report incidents.
“It supports them to understand that if it does happen, it is never their fault. It will also take the advantage away from the criminals responsible, whose only motivation is financial gain. Sadly, teenagers in the UK and around the world have taken their own lives because of sextortion,” Murray stated.
The NCA’s CEOP safety center recorded 380 sextortion reports in 2024, while UK police documented an average of 117 monthly cases involving minors in the first five months of last year. In the U.S., the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported over 28,000 sextortion cases globally in 2024, a rise from 26,718 in 2023.
Authorities urge victims to seek help and report incidents rather than giving in to financial demands.
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