ORLANDO, Fla. – UCF Police and Victim Services are seeing an alarming rise in the “sextortion” of students on campus.
In 20 cases last semester, students sent sexually compromising pictures of themselves over social media and the perpetrators used the photos against the students to extort money.
Most of the cases involve male victims and some are sending the nude images to people they’ve never met.
When UCF students are scammed, scared and suffering from sextortion, often they seek help from Victim Services. Dr. Laura Valle is the manager.
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“So a typical conversation is, ‘Hey, I may or may not have sent some images or videos,” Valle said. “And now this person that I don’t know or do know is threatening to send them out to everyone that I know and love.”
Dr. Valle said by the time students end up at Victim Services, they’ve already sent the nude images and sent money – hundreds, even thousands of dollars.
And in some of these cases, the victim never met his or her sextorter.
How does that happen?
“So a lot of what we see on our end is a student will receive a friend request on some kind of social media platform, most likely Tiktok or Instagram, anywhere where the perpetrator can see a picture or video of the victim,” Valle said. “And they’ll reach out and say, ‘hey I came across your profile and you seem really cute.’”
Some students know their sextorter – an ex – using the explicit pics as “revenge” porn.
Either way, because the student accepted the friend request, the perp has access to all of the student’s social circles.
“And then immediately after that picture is sent it turns into, ‘If you don’t send me $500 in the next 24 hours, I’m going to be sending this to your friends list,’” Valle said. “And because they added each other on social media, the perpetrator could see all of the friends list. So the victim has a list of who their family members are, best friends are. Or if they’ve posted any pictures of their employer.”
UCF Police Detective Bianca Becker received only seven of the 20 Victim Services cases last semester mostly because 13 of the 20 victims chose not to go to police out of fear or embarrassment.
Det. Becker said that troubles her.
“It does,” Becker said. “And as law enforcement we have to do better. We have to make our community feel comfortable coming to us.”
But Becker and UCF Police can only do so much because the cases are so complicated and time consuming and often foreign.
“I’ve had quite a few where we worked it all the way through and worked it for months and the perpetrator ends up being in Africa,” Becker said. “Or India was the other common one I had for a while. At that point it’s a dead end.”
Becker said arresting known perpetrators locally is always easier. And if law enforcement is involved, many banks are willing to refund the sextortion payout so a student can get his money back.
Dr. Valle warned to never pay a sextorter because the perpetrator will always demand more money and will often post the explicit pictures anyway.
But her most crucial piece of advice to students is, if they’re going to send explicit pics, never send anything in a photo that is personally identifiable. NEVER include your face in an explicit photo!
The UCF Victim Services center is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Call a confidential victim specialist at (407) 823-1200 or text (407)823-6868 around the clock.
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