The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced on Thursday a global operation to combat international sextortion schemes to address the rise in American suicides of those who have fallen victim to the crime.
And the problem is on the rise in a big way.
From October 2024 to March 2025, the FBI reported a 30% increase in sextortion-related tips submitted to their National Threat Operations Center, according to the press release. Additionally, the number of victims increased from 34,000 to 54,000 between 2023 and 2024, and in the last two years, more than $65 million in exploited money has been transferred to perpetrators from their victims.
In collaboration with multiple law enforcement agencies, the FBI recently conducted Operation Artemis, looking into the high volume of sextortion criminals based in Nigeria who were preying on Americans. The investigation led to 22 Nigerian arrests, and nearly half were connected to American victims who took their own lives because of threats of sexual extortion they were facing.
The majority of victims are boys between the ages of 14 and 17.
“Operation Artemis exemplifies the FBI’s never-ending mission to protect our most vulnerable, and to pursue the heinous criminals harming our children — no matter where they hide,” said FBI Director Kash Patel, per the press release. “This operation highlights the critical need for international cooperation to address this growing threat, and it’s a fight we can’t take on without our valued partners across the globe. We hope this message encourages parents and guardians to continue to educate their children about online safety and serves as a reminder of the FBI’s relentless pursuit of keeping our children safe.”
Sextortion: A national and local issue
Sextortion can occur on any social media, messaging or even gaming platform, virtually anywhere with an online public discord.
What often happens is that a minor will believe they are in conversation with someone of a similar age who is interested in pursuing a relationship with them, but is actually an adult posing as a young person. The perpetrator will then coerce them into sharing sexually explicit materials of themselves, which they will then use against the child to exploit money.
“Our young men are actually committing suicide from the experience itself. It can be drawn out and bring them to that point where they’re finding no other way out,” Utah state Sen. Calvin R. Musselman, R-West Haven, said during a ceremonial public safety bill signing earlier this month.
To target the worst of the worst, HB38, Criminal Offenses Modifications was signed into law this year, and Musselman, who was the bill’s floor sponsor, said the education side of the law will “hopefully make these young men recognize it’s not who they think it is that’s posing online, and also, know that their lives aren’t over, and hopefully, this will make a difference.”
The law comes after the loss of multiple boys who took their own lives last year in Utah, who, after being sexually exploited, concluded that suicide was their only outlet.
Utah mother Cindy George shared the story of losing her son Jake last year in testimony to lawmakers in December. “No mother should have to bury their son. I’m here because I cannot catch those evil people. Nothing was done to catch them,” she said, per KUTV.
“These evil people are preying upon our children and if we can’t stop them we need to prevent our youth from taking the bait. They need to understand what is preying upon them. They need to know that a mistake of sending a picture is not worth taking your life over,” she added.
For five days, Jake was the victim of sextortion after sending a nude photo to what he thought was a girl who liked him.
“And as soon as he sent it, he got a message saying, ‘Now we’ve got you, you’re gonna pay us or we’re going to ruin your life with this, with this picture,’” his mother said, recounting the messages she read from her son’s phone.
FBI Special Agent Curtis Cox, who serves on the Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force in Salt Lake City, told KSL TV that Salt Lake’s field office gets 10-12 reports a week.
“We think that the best remedy to solving this problem is education and the knowledge of what is happening,” Cox said. “My kids have cellphones. We do frequent checks with them. We know the pins. We review the messages sent and received, pictures. We restrict the apps that they can use.”