Police sound alarm about ‘sextortion’ scams targeting youth, young adults By: Erik Pindera Posted: 12:29 PM CDT Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2026 Last Modified: 4:58 PM CDT Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2026 Updates

Law enforcement and child protection officials are warning that “sextortion” scams targeting victims in Winnipeg and elsewhere in Canada have skyrocketed in recent years.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Stephen Spencer said the department is seeing a “continuous rise” in reports of the sexually exploitative blackmail scheme.

“These numbers are quite concerning,” Spencer told a news conference Wednesday. “Beyond these numbers, I know that there’s other (police) agencies that are experiencing the same issues, all across Canada.”

City police received 223 reports of extortion last year, almost all of which were incidents of sextortion, said Spencer. That’s up from 213 in 2024, 165 in 2023, 56 in 2022, 31 in 2021 and just 19 in 2020, he said. He did not have statistics on charges related to sextortion to provide Wednesday.

The scheme often involves people deceptively or coercively soliciting nude images from a victim, after developing a phony intimate relationship with them online to build trust, then threatening to release the pictures to the victim’s friends or loved ones, or publicly, unless there’s a payout or more images are received.

Other times, perpetrators in domestic relationships with victims use their intimate images as a way to control them, police said.

Spencer said victims are often too ashamed or afraid to report the crimes, and many are unaware of what legal protections and supports exist for them.

Youth and young adults are often lured into the schemes via social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram, or on online messaging platform Discord, police said.

Lindsay Lobb, director of operations at the Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said the organization has similarly seen a big uptick in reports of sextortion to its cybertip.ca website.

She said the number of reports went from 458 in 2020 to 2,827 in 2025. Those figures represent reports from across Canada.

“I think there are certainly a few things that are going on here,” Lobb said, referring to the increase. “Social media has become so integral and interconnected into peoples’ lives, but at the same time, has been built without guardrails or without child safety in mind.”

“Social media has become so integral and interconnected into peoples’ lives, but at the same time, has been built without guardrails or without child safety in mind.”

Allowing children and adults to interact on internet platforms without oversight allows predators to take advantage, she said.

“This is where our kids are living their day-to-day lives,” she said.

Lobb said the centre is hopeful the Liberal federal government will introduce online safety legislation in Ottawa.

The Online Harms Act, which proposed regulating certain harmful content on social media platforms and beefing up sentences for online hate speech, was introduced under the prior Liberal government, but did not pass before the last federal election.

The federal Liberals have signalled they intend to reintroduce some form of online safety legislation.

Det. Craig Holloway, an investigator in the WPS internet child exploitation unit, said there are large criminal organizations based elsewhere in the world that target kids in sextortion schemes.

He’s seen extortionists demand anywhere from $25 up to $1,600.

“It’s mostly in gift cards or e-transfers,” said Holloway.

He said police work hard to identify the people behind the blackmail, including by attempting to trace their internet protocol addresses, and send the information to law enforcement in the proper jurisdiction if the extortionist is based elsewhere.

“We try our best… but there’s so many, they can change email accounts constantly or delete their Instagram account or Snapchat, where most of it happens,” he said.

Holloway added that criminals have begun using artificial intelligence platforms to generate fake intimate images of their victims in extortion attempts.

“It is on the rise, we’re seeing a bit more of it now,” he said.

He advised parents to keep up to date with what their children are doing on the internet.

“If they’re on social media, if they’re on gaming platforms, maybe get to know the platforms they’re on… I think the major thing they can do is make sure that parents know what their kids are doing online, who their friends are and if they’re communicating with somebody they don’t know, ask your child who it is,” said Holloway.

He said he doesn’t blame parents.

“The internet’s a big place, and all these social media platforms, they’re massive… these kids, sometimes they just want to find love or connections — it happens — then they fall victim,” he said.

“The internet’s a big place, and all these social media platforms, they’re massive… these kids, sometimes they just want to find love or connections – it happens – then they fall victim.”

Spencer said the police service is using April — sexual assault awareness month — to highlight the growing problem.

The WPS intends to releases a video series this month on how intimate images can be used as a tool of coercive control in relationships, the potential legal consequences for youth and parents when nude images of minors are shared, how sextortion schemes work and what victims can do and the luring of youth via online platforms.

Any intimate images of people under 18 — even if sent between two minors with consent — are considered child sexual abuse material under the law, said Spencer.

He added that the people who own the electronic devices used to send such images — parents, in many cases — can face legal consequences.

Spencer warned anyone victimized in a sextortion scheme not to give in to demands for money or gift cards, but to instead report it to police.

“You’re not alone — we’re here to help,” he said, adding victims can also report incidents to cybertip.ca or to Crime Stoppers anonymously.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca