Ottawa police see a rise in sextortion cases this winter

CTV Northern Ontario: Sextortion

Ottawa police are warning the public of the dangers of texting explicit images to people on social media platforms, after seeing a spike in sextortion cases this winter.

Sgt. Michael Cathcart says investigators in the Ottawa Police west division have been hearing from approximately 10 sextortion victims a week.

"It's a dangerous practice that we see far too often here in the city," Cathcart told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa at Work with Patricia Boal.

Cathcart says sextortion is the act of extorting money after someone sends a photograph over social media or through a text message. Suspects are looking for victims by first befriending them online and then asking for photos.

"A lot of the victims of this are predominately male, younger males, that are involved on various social media platforms," Cathcart said.

"They strike up a conversation with somebody; it's often somebody not in their contacts list or on their friends' list, it's a new contact."

Police say the victims are all ages, with approximately 50 incidents reported over the past two months.

"The conversations usually start off fairly benign, 'Hey, how are you?' 'It's nice to meet you.' 'I'd love a picture.'" Cathcart said.

"Inevitably, the conversation turns into something of a sexual nature; the receiver is asking for a photo, and one will be sent. You really don't know who you are sending it to, and within minutes there are messages being sent back saying, 'Send me a sum of money or I will release this photo to all of the friends on your contact list,' and this is where the crime occurs."

Cathcart says the demand for a sum of money starts with an "astronomical number" like $5,000, followed by a negotiation by the victim. The suspect will then provide information to send money through Google or Apple Pay accounts, but the contact name will be different than the original person, Cathcart said.

Ottawa police offer the following safety tips for people to prevent sextortion:

• Limit the amount of personal information you post on social media channels to make it difficult for scammers to learn information about you
• Set your social media privacy settings to limit who can contact you
• Don’t accept unknown friend requests
• Cover your webcam when you aren’t using it so you can’t be recorded without your consent
• Don’t click on links or download files from unknown sources
• Requests for intimate images of yourself should be a red flag and never send them to any social media platform or electronic device

Police say if you are the victim of sextortion, don't try to handle it alone. You should follow these steps:

• Stop all communication with the suspect
• Save all texts, images, and communications
• If you are a youth, or even if you are legally an adult, tell your parent or guardian so they can help you
• Contact police
• Make a report through Cybertip.ca
• Report the suspect user through the social media platform from which they are contacting you

Cathcart says it is difficult to track down suspects online, so you need to make sure you know who you are sharing images with.

"My best advice is think before you click. You don't know who is on the other end of that keyboard."