BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – There’s a new warning from the FBI about an online scheme targeting kids and teenagers.
Agents from the New Orleans Division have seen an increase in sextortion cases across the state. This is a crime where someone is blackmailed or threatened over explicit photos or videos online.
Allison Bello, a Lake Charles native, said she was a victim of this crime a few years ago when she was 17.
“It was an Instagram DM that had my name with a question mark by it,” said Bello.
Bello said she was curious to what this random account wanted, so she responded, but she was quickly flooded with threats. The person on the other end of the screen somehow got a hold of some private photos she had taken but never sent to anyone else.
”They sent the pictures of myself, and they had video recordings I had taken, and they sent all of it to me and they told me it would be released to everybody,” said Bello.
The person messaged her Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok accounts, and gave no reason why they were threatening expose her. That’s when Bello decided to tell her parents and call police.
“I told my mom I did a stupid thing she told me not to do, and now it’s come back. I needed her help,” said Bello.
According to the FBI, sextortion can start on any site, app, or game where people meet and communicate. In some cases, the first contact from the criminal will be a threat. The person may claim they already have a revealing picture or video that…
