New Zealand Police are warning of increasing incidents of ‘sextortion’ where local young people are targeted by offshore offenders.

This is a global issue where offshore offenders target young victims by tricking them into sending sexually explicit content before blackmailing them with threats to share the content with friends and family unless they pay.

While we first started to see this in New Zealand in late 2021, instances of local young victims continue to rise.

The offending generally begins with a direct message sent to the victim on social media.

The victim is then asked to continue chatting on a different app, and the conversation often becomes highly sexualised.

From there the victim is coerced into sharing intimate photos and/or videos of themselves, which are used to blackmail them, with threats to share it on their social media contacts list unless they pay.

In some instances, photos are reportedly doctored by the offender to make the victim appear to be in even more compromising positions.

Offenders can also capture naked or sexual images of the young person while they’re on live stream or video, which is often then part of extortion. This is called ‘capping’.

We are shining a light on this serious issue to ensure New Zealand young people, their parents and care givers are aware of the risks and remain vigilant to ensure it does not happen to them.

Learn more here - https://netsafe.org.nz/sextortion/