Cybertip.ca Alerts

Malicious users behind fake social media accounts are contacting youth with the purpose of sextorting them.

Sextortion is when a person is blackmailed by someone threatening to expose their intimate images. The goal: get the victim to panic and send money or more images. Cybertip.ca, Canada’s tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children, on average receives seven reports of sextortion a day.^{Go to footnote 1}

While there are millions of these accounts being blocked every day, there are many that are not.^{Go to footnote 2} That’s why it’s crucial for parents to know what to look for when checking the legitimacy of an account that youth may be interacting with. Here are three clues to look for to help spot a potential scam:

1. Was the account recently created?

   Those looking to exploit youth often create multiple accounts to expand their reach, so finding out if the account is brand new is a good first clue. How to find this is different on each platform, but it's common for the account creation date to be found on the main profile page.

   For example:

   

   On Instagram®, new accounts have a tag saying “NEW” underneath an account’s profile picture:

   

   One thing to keep in mind is that some popular platforms don’t show this information.

2. Does the account have few followers, while following many accounts?

   Another thing to consider when inspecting suspicious accounts is to compare the balance between the following and followers counts. Fake accounts tend to follow large numbers of people, while having very few followers. This isn’t how real human social networks tend to look but it’s very common with accounts created for malicious intent.

   

3. Is the person behind the account really the person in the profile picture?

   Consider whether or not the person in the profile picture is really the person behind the account. If the account has no profile picture to begin with, this is a red flag. In instances in which the account does have a picture, it’s important to check if they appear elsewhere online. Fake accounts often display stolen photos from other users pretending to be them, a process called “catfishing.”^{Go to footnote 3}

   To check for similar or duplicates of an image online, there are reverse image search tools that could help pinpoint where the image was first posted, or if it has been used on other accounts in the past — often a telltale sign of a scam profile. However, it’s important to keep in mind that using this tool doesn’t always work.

   

   While these are good practices to adopt when checking the legitimacy of an account on social media, sometimes it’s difficult to tell — and that’s ok. Remind your child to question the identity of everyone online and to trust their instincts. If something feels “off” about an account or message, it’s best to not respond and/or block the account.

What to do when your child has been victimized online

If your child has been victimized online, there is help: Cybertip.ca online report form.

If you think your child might be in immediate danger or risk, call 911.

1. 1 https://cybertip.ca/en/online-harms/sextortion/ ↩
2. 2 https://transparency.meta.com/reports/community-standards-enforcement/fake-accounts/facebook/ ↩
3. 3 https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/29/tech/catfishing-explained-what-to-do-as-equals-intl-cmd/index.html ↩