FinCEN issues notice to help FIs detect and disrupt financially motivated sextortion, in which victims are coerced into paying to prevent exposure of explicit content

These schemes involve perpetrators using fake personas to coerce victims into creating and sending sexually explicit images or videos, threatening to release the material unless payment is provided. FinCEN highlighted the alarming increase in such incidents, particularly among minors aged 14 to 17, and emphasized the importance of suspicious activity reporting to support law enforcement…