Gardaí are warning parents and secondary school students of a new “sextortion” scam.
Teenagers are being lured into sharing intimate pictures of themselves by cyber criminals.
The criminals are then threatening to put the images online unless a ransom is paid.
Garda crime prevention officer Michael Walsh told Newstalk that once a person pays once, they will be continuously harassed for more money.
“For anybody who might find themselves in this position, the first thing to do would be to contact An Garda Síochána,” he explained.
“We have dedicated cybercrime units now who deal with a lot of this type of crime or any type of fraud or scams.
“So that should be your first port of call.
“The next advice I’d give to anybody is do not pay a ransom.
“Its down that slippy slope of where do I stop? And if you take the bait once you are going to be targeted again.
“Don’t pay the ransom, stop engaging with these people, don’t text back, don’t communicate back to them, report it to the Gardaí.”
Sharing a non-consensual intimate image of someone else can lead to seven years imprisonment.
