“Sextortion schemes” targeting young boys online are on the rise in Utah, according to the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office.

According to a news release from the field office, these schemes involve an adult, typically posing online as a young girl, contacting minor males between the ages of 14 and 17 years old. The adult uses “deception and manipulation” to get the minor to engage in explicit activity on video, the release states, and then tries to extort the victim for money to halt publishing the video online.

“The FBI Salt Lake City Field Office is warning parents and caregivers about an increase in incidents involving sextortion of young children,” the release states. “The FBI is receiving a significant increase in the number of reports of adults posing as young girls coercing young boys through social media to produce sexual images and videos and then extorting money from them.”

Logan City Police Chief Gary Jensen said these kinds of criminal episodes don’t occur frequently in Logan, but they do happen. Generally, Jensen said there are two sextortion issues police see locally: the inappropriate sharing of explicit images by an aggrieved party — say, after a breakup; and online encounters like the aforementioned scheme.

In the latter incidents, Jensen said, minors communicate online and are lulled into a sense of trust.

“You think you can trust them — you quickly learn that you cannot,” Jensen said.

Jensen said it’s rare, however, for those attempting an extortion to actually be able to follow through with their threats as many of the parties are international. But it’s still a “roll of the dice,” Jensen said.

“If they are savvy enough to do that, then you might find yourself in trouble,” Jensen said. “We never like to see people cave into the notion of extortion.”

According to the field office release, sextortion is a crime with potentially heavy penalties. While children often feel embarrassment coming forward in such circumstances, they are encouraged to do so.

“Sextortion offenders may have hundreds of victims around the world, so coming forward to help law enforcement identify the offender may prevent countless other incidents of sexual exploitation to that victim and others,” the news release states.

Jensen encouraged people not to send explicit photos online.

“Once you hit send, you have no control. That receiver can do anything with it,” Jensen said.

“I don’t care if you know the person, you’re just asking for trouble,” Jensen said. “Don’t do those kinds of things and you won’t find yourself in that position.”

According to the release, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 18,000 sextortion-related complaints with losses of over $13.6 million in 2021. All types of sextortion are included in the reported number.

The FBI provided the following tips in the release for parents and children:

• Be selective about what you share online, especially your personal information and passwords. If your social media accounts are open to everyone, a predator may be able to figure out a lot of information about you or your children.

• Be wary of anyone you encounter for the first time online. Block or ignore messages from strangers.

• Be aware that people can pretend to be anything or anyone online. Videos and photos are not proof that a person is who they claim to be.

• Be suspicious if you meet someone on a game or app and they ask you to start talking to them on a different platform.

• Encourage your children to report suspicious behavior to a trusted adult.