Cases of sextortion have risen in Wadsworth over the last several years for multiple reasons, including the rise of generative AI technology. The local police department is warning teenagers and young adults to stay aware of these threats, teaching methods to prevent and stop these situations from occurring and what to do if the situation is currently happening.
Sextortion is the act of threatening to release someone’s explicit photos, videos, messages or other forms of media to extort money or more sexual content from them.
It happens online and can occur on any messaging or social media app where users can communicate. School resource officers Nate Ball, Adam Innocenti and Detective James Allenby each deal with instances of sextortion in and around the Wadsworth. Methods that offenders use can include secretly recording sexual messages and interactions, threatening harm if explicit content is not sent, creating a catfishing profile to lure people into sending photos, and hacking social media accounts to obtain explicit material.
Officer Ball discussed how these scenarios typically start.
“A lot of times, people, especially with social media nowadays, they’ll [offenders] just find some random person or somebody they think may look vulnerable and start talking with them,” said Ball. “A lot of times, it’ll make them feel special, and then they’ll eventually coerce them into sending either explicit images or videos, and then from there is when they’ll take over with the sextortion.”
Perpetrators are not always known to the victim. According to Allenby, in about 80% of sextortion cases, the offender has no personal connection to the victim, while in 20% of cases, the offender has or has had a relationship with the victim. Known offenders are usually former partners, as stated by Allenby. In the 20% group, typically, a relationship between partners will end, and one partner will expose the other partner’s sexual content out of spite. This is known as revenge porn under Ohio state law. According to Wikipedia, “Revenge porn is the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of individuals without their consent, with the punitive intention to create public humiliation or character assassination out of revenge against the victim.”
While this does occur, Allenby explained it is more common to see a perpetrator use a fake profile to talk to a wide variety of people and elicit nude photos from them.
“I’ve gone through perpetrators’ phones, and you know I can tell you they’ve talked, [the offenders] might be talking to 40-50 people at the same time,” said Allenby.
The majority of offenders also work together in groups, trying to extort as many people as possible. They will talk to hundreds of individuals at once, extort them, and use their power typically for monetary gain. This is one of the more common ways offenders will extort their victims. Similarities can be seen between these extortion groups and those that scam vulnerable people online, as Allenby stated.
“You [can] have a group of people in like, a call center, you know, or something like that overseas where they’re just trying to get money from people that they’ve sextorted,” said Allenby. “So in that case, they’d be working together.”
In Wadsworth and the surrounding areas, reports of sextortion have risen compared to the last 5 years. This is partially due to the advancement of technology of generative artificial intelligence (also known as generative AI), which allows users to create sexual deepfakes of anyone they have a photo of by typing in a prompt. AI deepfake databases have been discovered as recently as March 2025, when cybersecurity researcher Jerimiah Fowler found a database containing thousands of AI-generated or manipulated images. These images contained deepfakes of celebrities and children. Generative AI uses findings from all over the web to generate these images. Users can also use basic stock photos from a person’s social media as material for their deepfakes. Meaning that in this way, offenders do not need to have any intimate photos of a victim to threaten and extort them. Groups of offenders who create AI deepfakes can even be found on mainstream social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit, posing a threat to anyone whose social media accounts are visible to the public.
Victims are often afraid to come forward for multiple reasons. Distributing child pornography is a potential charge that many victims worry about. However, as a minor and a victim, in most cases, they will not get charged with distributing child pornography in a sextortion case. However, only the offender will be charged with the distribution of child pornography.
Other fears include embarrassment from being put in this situation and the fears that they may be judged. There is also a worry that their explicit photos may be shown to the public in court proceedings.
“They [victims] don’t want that [their explicit content] out there, then some people don’t realize when they come to the police department, especially when you’re a minor, your information is very protected,” said Ball.
In most cases, the evidence against the suspect will lead to a guilty plea prior to the case reaching trial. It is only in the more extreme cases, or if a victim is looking to prosecute, will an offender be tried in a court of law.
“I’ve been a detective for six years now, and I think I’ve gone to trial, you know, less than five times,” said Allenby.
In order for the offender to be charged for their crimes, it is crucial that anyone who is in a situation where they are being sextorted speaks up and informs a trusted adult.
It is important to notify the local police department immediately. If the suspect is demanding money, do not pay them, or stop any future payments if they have already occurred. All transfers of explicit material should also be stopped. Contact with the suspect should be discontinued, but messages should be retained for law enforcement’s investigation.
“I know some of the images might be embarrassing and things like that, but again, we’re professionals,” said Innocenti. “We take our job very seriously. We need those images in order to pursue charges against that person [the offender].”
Reportcybertip.org is another outlet that victims can use to report any instances of sextortion if they cannot immediately report to law enforcement.
“If it’s [a victim] a friend that’s telling you [they are being extorted], again, I definitely think having [a] conversation with them trying to convince them to come forward themselves,” said Allenby. “Because, like we said, we know that’s a very hard thing to do in situations like that. It’s embarrassing, it’s stressful, you can be scared because of the threats.”
It is important to come forward about a friend’s situation. A person’s well-being and safety are the top priority, as stated by Officer Ball. Coming forward can help other victims and bring the offender to justice by charging and sentencing them.
Victims can also contact counseling services to help them cope and understand their situation. Most importantly, it is crucial for victims to know that the situation is not their fault. Coming forward will also help law enforcement track down perpetrators. When someone comes forward with their story, they may unknowingly help others in a similar situation.
