MARIETTA, Ga. — Federal and local law enforcement are putting out a warning about criminals preying on your children for money.
The most recent case in Marietta, where police say a mother came forward asking for this story to be shared after her teen was threatened for money.
"I can't imagine the anxiety that that child felt," Ofc. Chuck McPhilamy with the Marietta Police Department said.
The teen was on the clock and forced to panic during school. The mother wrote to the police after the fact that an unknown person sent a message to her child on Instagram with a photoshopped nude image.
"A deep fake photo was being used to make this child believe that they now had nude photos of them and threatened to release that to all of their friends if they wouldn't send over money," McPhilamy said.
Three hundred dollars over a fake picture that wasn't them. Despite the teen blocking the sender, more came from an iCloud email to their phone.
"The messages were coming in, doing a countdown, saying that within this time frame, if you weren't sending money, that all of these photos were going to be released. It was this very scary situation," McPhilamy said.
The mother said the teen went to the front office to report it to their parents and school staff, and that's when an investigation started. The important thing police commended the teen for is they never engaged with the sender and reported it right away.
"That's what victims are seeing, primarily 17 to 19-year-olds. We're seeing 13-year-olds. We've seen it as young as 7, 9-year-olds at times," Tony Thomas, a spokesperson with the FBI Georgia, said.
The agents fighting against these crimes said more boys are being targeted now than before. In Georgia, the number of sextortion cases keeps rising.
"It's increasing every year since 2021. The number of sextortion cases in Georgia has increased 700%," Thomas said.
Twenty-one reports in the state in 2021 jumped to 196 in 2023.
"I'm told by our special agents that we're easily on pace to top that number this year," Thomas said.
Despite the numbers dramatically rising, Thomas said sextortion crimes are underreported.
"These stats that we have are probably dramatically higher in real life because kids do get scared," Thomas said.
According to law enforcement, that feeling is normal, but police say teens need to feel comfortable coming forward to an adult, whether it's their parents, teacher or police.
In most cases, the people preying on children are in another state and even out of the country.
Some key takeaways to remember and protect yourself:
1. This can happen anywhere to anyone (kids & adults)
2. These criminals may not even know you and could be anywhere in the world.
3. It happens to boys as well as girls.
4. Parents need to talk with their children and let them know how to prevent it and what to do if it happens to them or one of their friends.
5. With technological advances and AI, the photos may or may not even be real.
6. The demands for money don’t usually go away.
7. Remind kids never to send nude pictures, but also remind them that you are there to help them.
8. This happens more than most people realize.
Marietta Police said that while they hope this situation never happens to your family, they are here to help if needed. They appreciate the courage it took to share their experience so that others may be more aware.