The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a notice alerting U.S. financial institutions to a sharp increase in financially motivated sextortion schemes. Perpetrators use fake online personas to coerce victims into sending sexually explicit images or videos, then threaten to release this material unless a payment is made. This crime has led to substantial financial losses, with the FBI reporting $33.5 million lost in 2024, a 59% increase from 2023.
Sextortion has had tragic consequences, with the FBI identifying at least 20 victims aged 17 or younger who died by suicide between October 2021 and March 2023. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) reports at least 36 teenage suicides due to explicit image leakage threats since 2021. For example, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Western Michigan charged five people in August 2024 for a money laundering conspiracy that facilitated a foreign sextortion scheme leading to the suicide of 17-year-old Jordan DeMay.
The nature of sextortion is evolving, with a significant rise in the use of AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM). NCMEC reported an 8,411% increase in CyberTipline reports involving generative AI CSAM between 2023 and 2025, from 4,700 to over 400,000 cases. Victims are often blackmailed for money or additional content, as illustrated by the case of "Maya," a 16-year-old who received an AI-generated image of her face on a nude body and was threatened with public exposure unless she paid. In Wisconsin, sextortion cases nearly tripled from 2024 to 2025, with the state's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force receiving 650 tips in 2025 compared to 230 in 2024. New laws in Wisconsin, passed in 2025, provide recourse for victims and increase funding for the task force.
