Sextortion scam left teen 'absolutely petrified'

The teenager was targeted by scammers who demanded cash to stop them sharing AI-generated images

The father of a teenager who was the victim of sexual extortion has described the scammers who targeted him as evil.

Adam, not his real name, said his son was "absolutely petrified" after he was threatened by online scammers who tricked him into paying them money to prevent an image of him created by artificial intelligence (AI) being sent to his friends and family.

"Just knowing that somebody's trying to scam your kid, and potentially push your kid to rock bottom, it was evil," Adam, from Guernsey, said.

Officers from Guernsey Police are warning families to beware of the risks after a rise in cases of sexual extortion - known as sextortion - in the island.

Sextortion is one of the fastest-growing online crimes where victims - often teenagers - are tricked into sending intimate photos or videos.

Scammers then threaten to pass on the content unless they receive payment.

Adam said his son sent the scammers £30 after they repeatedly asked him for money.

"He thought he could handle it by sending a bit of money and then realised actually this is going to keep going and I've run out of money," he said.

"He was at that panic point of actually this is quite serious.

"He was absolutely petrified, shaken, and he obviously only came down to us at the point when he realised he didn't know what to do."

'Keep themselves safe'

Laura Simpson, digital safety development officer at Guernsey Police, said learning about sextortion should be treated like "any other aspect of safety" for children and teenagers.

"We teach children and young people how to cross the road safely so when they're on their own they can do it without getting run over, and this is no different," she said.

She has been teaching young people in Guernsey about sextortion and what to do if they become a victim.

"This is all about making sure that when they're having those independent or lower support interactions online that they know what they need to look out for and how to keep themselves safe," she said.

Guernsey Police said the majority of cases involved young people and it was essential for families to be understand the risks sextortion scams posed.

Police said AI image generators and editing tools had become a tool for scammers to blackmail victims.

The Internet Watch Foundation urged people under 18 to use its Report Remove tool to confidentially report sexual images and videos of themselves and remove them from the internet.