Peterborough County OPP are reporting a “large increase” in incidents of the sextortion scam being reported to police.
OPP issued a release on Thursday morning warning the public about the incidents.
Const. Joe Ayotte tells Global News Peterborough that the detachment has received reports of four incidents so far in February. He also referenced an announcement earlier this week by the Toronto Police Service and other services which issued a joint warning about a global financial sextortion crisis.
Considered a form of online blackmail, a sextortion suspect deceives victims, often beginning with causal online conversations on a social media site. The chats become sexual and the victim is asked to send sexually explicit photographs of themselves.
Victims are then extorted for money or more photos, or the suspect threatens to expose the explicit photos online to the victim’s friends, family and co-workers.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is also reporting an increase in the number of sextortion cases, OPP say.
Police encourage victims of this type of exploitation or similar crimes to report the incident.
Police say the Canadian Centre for Child Protection on average receives 200 sextortion reports per month through Cybertip.ca, with 87 per cent of sextortion incidents reported affecting boys.