SIDNEY — A local investigation of “sextortion” has shown how far reaching the Internet has become. The person involved with threatening local students has been traced to Amsterdam.

“The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office began investigating a situation where a student was being threatened by an unknown person with the sending of nude photos of them, which the person had obtained from gaining access to their phone,” said Chief Deputy Jim Frye.

The person responsible was taking over the students Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook accounts and then began posing as that person, said Frye. Once the person gained control of their accounts they started extorting the students and demanded anywhere from $500 to $750 for the person to stop sending the photos and to also give back access to their accounts.

“As the investigation continued we were able to friend the person and through a courageous student we set up the person and by doing so we were able to identify the location of the IP address the person was using when accessing the students phones,” said Frye.

“We would like for anyone who had the following contacts in their Snapchat, Twitter or Facebook accounts, Christian P (christianpp55), Page Harer (pageypoo172), Hailey Ng or Susu (mariana_justen) to delete these users,” he said. “We also recommend that anyone who has been involved in receiving any communication from these people to do a factory reset of their phones or any device they use to access Snapchat, Twitter or Facebook and to create a new Snapchat, Twitter or Facebook account.”

The IP address, said Frye, has been traced to Amsterdam. Because the person is in another country, an arrest is unlikely.

“We also recommend that when you are using these social media platforms that you be diligent in only friending people you know and don’t except anyone just because they are friends with someone you do know,” Frye continued. “Also do not open any emails with an unknown attachment or a message for you to reset your password, this is how they are gaining access to your accounts.”

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s cyber division these incidents are known as “sextortion,” which is a relatively new form of sexual exploitation that occurs primarily online and in which non-physical forms of coercion are utilized, such as blackmail to acquire sexual content, videos and photos of the child, and obtain money from the child or to engage in sex with a child.

“The following 90-second YouTube video show exactly what we are referring to and how the subjects use and gain access to the victims: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a440H146l14,” said Frye.

If anyone has any questions regarding this issue, contact Frye at 937-494-2117.