Nottinghamshire Police have arrested and charged two men with blackmailing offences linked to sextortion.
Sextortion is when criminals pose as someone else online, usually as a young female, and befriend young males online.
They will engage in conversation before asking them to send intimate pictures of themselves.
Once sent, they will then threaten to send their intimate images to family and friends unless they are paid in cash, vouchers or bitcoin.
In this case, a 23-year-old university student, from Nottingham, was contacted over Instagram in October 2023 by who he thought was a female.
The conversation moved over to Snapchat where the chat started to turn sexual. He was then asked to send intimate pictures of himself.
Once the images were sent, the victim was asked to send £500, otherwise the images would be sent to family, friends and people at his university.
He sent £300.
Adam Abimbola, aged 25, of Woden Road, Wolverhampton, and Ifedolapo Bamgbaiye, aged 26, of Onslow Road, Southampton, have been charged with blackmail.
Both will appear before Nottingham Magistrates Court on February 6.
Detective Sergeant Alana Scott, who is investigating the incident, said:
“Sextortion has a detrimental impact on victims, not only emotionally but financially.
“We have now charged two men in connection with this incident that happened in Nottingham.”
Detective Chief Inspector Chris Berryman added:
“We take all reports of Sextortion extremely seriously in Nottingham and will support any victims affected by this crime.
“We launched a police campaign to educate young people about Sextortion following a rise in reports, which was widely publicised in the media at the time.
“We have also worked with both universities.
“Anyone who has been affected by Sextortion, please don’t suffer in silence. Please get in touch with us as soon as possible. We are here to help.”
