Wyoming Teens Warned of Social Media “Sexploitation” Crime

Wyoming’s youth are being targeted, blackmailed, and sexually exploited on their social media apps, and state law enforcement and the FBI urge kids to be safe.

The F.B.I. alerted the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (D.C.I.) of a new and disturbing extortion scheme “trending” on social media. Last week, the Laramie Police Department shared those details on Facebook.

In early 2022, the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and the Laramie PoliceDepartment (LPD) became aware of a widespread online criminal sextortion case involving multiple juvenile victims in Wyoming.

Unfortunately, there are confirmed blackmail victims of “sextortion” in Albany County.

The case involves multiple unknown suspects using social media accounts like Snapchat and Instagram to blackmail young female students into sending intimate and sexually explicit images and videos.

Then, the suspect(s) utilize a victim’s friends and follow list(s) to find and extort new victims.

Typical behavior exhibited by the suspects includes the following:

• Sending links of other victims’ explicit files to potential victims and telling the potential victims that if they send files, the SUSPECT won’t “expose” the prior child victim’s files. If the potential victim agrees, the SUSPECT will begin extorting the new victim.
• The SUSPECT demands videos and images over a multi-day period and claims that the SUSPECT will delete the files if the victim complies. This is NOT true.
• THE SUSPECT forces (under threat of exposure)  victims to conduct video calls that show the victim’s face, while the SUSPECT keeps his face hidden. This is done so the SUSPECT can further exploit the child victim.
• The SUSPECT forces (under the threat of exposure) the child victim to provide the victim’s friend list or followers.

Although the suspect(s) remain unidentified, Wyoming D.C.I. and L.P.D. continue to actively investigate this case and work with the FBI to stop this ongoing exploitation.

If these individuals contact you or someone you know, or you are asked by someone to add an unknown “friend,” please beware: the suspects depend on victims feeling ashamed or guilty to continue to exploit them. Furthermore, they will not stop the exploitation, regardless of how many pictures or videos a victim sends.

Courtesy Pexels & Sora Shimazaki

Remember, it is NOT your fault. If you or someone you know is a victim, please report it to a trusted adult or Law Enforcement.

In this case, there are well over 150 victims nationwide. You are NOT alone. If you receive a link of another victim’s images, please do NOT view or respond and report it immediately.

Do not accept friend requests from people you don’t know, and do NOT provide other people’s information.

For additional information or questions, please contact the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation at (307) 777-7181.