Son has fallen victim to online scam - advice please

[Seaside1234]

Husband has just phoned to say that my poor 15 yo son has been the victim of a horrendous online scam - he's been conned into sending nudes, blackmailed and then had the images sent to contacts on his Instagram. I'm furious, heartbroken and so frustrated that he did this - I thought kids today were wise to this kind of thing, but the scammers are clearly evil pros. Husband is ringing police. I'm so frightened what this might do to him. Please help with any advice or support. What can we do to help him through this?

So sorry this has happened, OP. You are doing the right thing involving the police. Have the pics been posted on IG? You can report to them and get them taken down.

https://www.iwf.org.uk/resources/sextortion/ Some advice here

Tell him just to say to his contacts they are deepfakes and someone is trying badly to con money out of him. Never admit they are real. This could help help protect him a little.

This is awful OP, I'm so sorry this has happened to your son.
If the pictures are still on Instagram and viewable, you can report them in hopes they will be taken down. They definitely break Instagram guidelines by the sounds of things.
Contacting the police was the right thing to do.

He should put a message out on his Instagram saying this and then just get off line for the foreseeable future to give himself some space.

@Gabbsters thank you. Apparently the pictures sent back to him had been fairly obviously photoshopped and also probably not sent on review of the communications. Police were apparently very helpful, and said that having gotten any money (he'd given them £20) they'll probably just move on. So maybe it could have been worse. I'm just so fucking angry with what awful, desperate people there are in the world. My poor boy

@Seaside1234 I’m so sorry this has happened to your Son. It’s great he has talked to you - my friend’s son fell victim to this and only told her 10 years later having gone off the rails in the meantime.

Plenty of love, keep talking and maybe counselling if he wants to chat through his embarrassment with a professional I would suggest. Big hugs

Definitely this also

@Sextonssinglemalt yes, I'm so relieved he's told us. I just wish I'd been able to protect him better in the first place. I assumed he knew about this kind of thing

This happened to my 21 year old son a few months back. They sent the picture to a load of his friends and family members and he was £500 lighter after acquiescing to the scammers demands, who still distributed the pic anyway. He did report to the police but obviously nothing came of it.

His own fault, should have known better at his age and the amount of times we had warned him about these types of things along with the constant reminders they get at school from primary through secondary. Lessons learnt for him and hopefully will have benefits for him in the future - to listen to the advice of those older and wiser.

Your son is younger though so I do feel for him. Trust me though, he's not alone. I worked in secondary education and it's rife. It will be a distant memory some day. The issue is that these young men believe it when a ' pretty girl' asks them for dxxk pics. They don't realise is 45 year old man, sometimes in another country, sat behind the laptop in his undercrackers!

Just get him off Instagram his too young for it anyway

This sort of scam is huge right now, especially in the US, UK and Australia, generally because it works. And it is targeting male teens with messages seemingly from attractive females but are scammers from overseas.

Reassure your son he has done nothing wrong, it will blow over and soon be forgotten.

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/nca-issues-urgent-warning-about-sextortion

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64042266

Thank god he told you. A mother was interviewed on the radio her lad took his own life over this it’s a massive risk to younger teens especially boys. Keep him close tell everyone it’s deep fakes and ensure he sees the bigger picture. Poor you how awful. Absolutely scum these people are.

That was my immediate thought - thank god he shared.

There's been a lot of discussion of this in our school lately because of a tragic case in Scotland where a young boy took his own life.

Police seem well aware of this issue, and hopefully will be able to support you.

@TimGrantsNoAccessToWomen the police are apparently at the house already (I'm at work), which I hope will help give him faith in the system. If nothing else comes of this, at least we know he trusts and feels safe with us, and we've got his back. We're going to contact the school tomorrow. Thankfully it's the last week of term here so hopefully if anything does come of it it will have blown over by the end of the holidays.

This is actually genius! 👆
Really smart thinking, and I 100% agree.

I'm so sorry and hope you're able to get support for you and ds.

@Gillbil @NewDogOwner yes, this is exactly what I've said to him. Thankfully images of his face and bits don't apparently appear in the same image, so any images look like they've been manipulated anyway

oh dear... and at 15 too! i'm curious why the topic of sending pics on social media hasn't been touched on at school? i know when mine were that age, some 7 or 8 years ago now granted, but even back then, there was lots of advice out there from school re this kind of thing?

and of course, being a parent i made it clear what i considered to be appropriate contact, but you can't supervise them 24/7 i'm afraid.

its unusual that they have actually sent the content too his other contacts etc.. they threaten it, but normally they don't actually do it?

fingers crossed for a resolution, and well done on such a quick police response.

I'm so glad he shared it with you. As a pp said, a young boy took his life over the same situation recently.
I hope the police take it seriously, it's a terrifying and increasingly prevalent crime targeting vulnerable children

https://www.ceopeducation.co.uk/professionals/guidance/fmse-alert/

I would like to think the police will take it seriously as whoever has done it (and I really hope its not someone he knows) is effectively distributing sexual images of a child.

I hope your poor son is OK. Mine is only 5 and I already worry about the world he's growing up in.

I'm sure the school have spoken about it, but you never think this kind of thing will happen to you, and I understand scammers are very good at this now. Once he's over the shock and acute phase, there will be a clear talk about online risk and behaviour, but I'm hoping this will be the best possible lesson he could have. And yes, thankfully it turns out pictures may not have been sent, just threatened.

And this has prompted me to make sure I talk really clearly to my 11yo daughter as well. I guess we have to get any positive aspects out of it that we can

It is generally people operating from overseas.