Officials warn of sextortion scam, where a female contacts underage males asking for inappropriate images/videos

[Watch previous FOX 8 News coverage on sextortion in the player above.]

NOBLE COUNTY , Ohio ( WTRF ) Officials in Ohio are warning the public about a sextortion scam targeting underage kids.

The Noble County Sheriff’s Office put out a warning that an unknown person was posting on Facebook as a person named Elizabeth White. The person was using the White profile to chat with underage males through Facebook Messenger.

The alleged female attempts to get underage kids to share inappropriate images or videos and then uses those to extort them for money.

The underage kids will then be threatened and told if they don’t pay a certain amount of money, the alleged female will send those images or videos to their friends and family. Even if a juvenile doesn’t send any inappropriate images, the alleged female could use other images, saying they are of the juvenile, during the attempt to extort them.

“The first way to protect our youth is to have these tough conversations with them. Explain they should not be adding or talking with anyone they have not met in person,” said Sheriff Jason Mackie. “We need to talk with our children and warn them not to share images or videos through any platform they wouldn’t want their friends or family to see.”

Mackie said if anyone added this alleged female to their social media platforms to report and block the profile immediately to avoid falling victim to the scam.

The Noble County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the fraudulent account while working with the Cleveland-based Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

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