I have heard so many stories from several of you ladies who were innocently scrolling on social media when a message popped up in your chat.

This super cute guy was messaging you either asking you if you'd like to be his friend or complementing you about how beautiful you are. It seemed innocent enough until you found yourself in the place asking yourself the question, "How did I get here?"

Recently, Investigators (who are all former law enforcement officers) with an anti-trafficking organization called Hope for Justice, did an experiment where they created a fake Instagram account with a teen girl’s photo. In just 48 hours, there were messages from several people…three appearing to be older males who were excited to be talking to a girl under the age of 18. According to their website, hopeforjustice.org, these conversations escalated quickly to asking her (this fake Instagram account) for her age, where she lived, for her to send them photos and videos of herself, telling them that they will take care of them. When Hope for Justice responded that she (this fake Instagram account) lived at home with her mother, these guys wanted to meet with this “girl” in person. Two of these Three guys were identified by the police and law enforcement officers took over from there.

One of the biggest tactics online predators are using is blackmail. I have heard this directly from several different people.

There is a girl that is local to me. She was homeschooled and an all-around great girl. She was scrolling through social media one day and got a message from this guy who she thought was cute.

This girl is a Christian, but she never really felt accepted in her youth ministry…she especially was never noticed by any guys, so when this guy noticed her online and she saw he was cute. She started talking to him. She was cautious, because she had heard the stories.

They chatted every day at a specific time when nobody was home, and it became their thing. She got to know him and really felt a connection to him and then he asked her for an inappropriate photo. She was shocked, but sent a photo anyway, because she didn’t want to say no and not talk to this guy again.

That one photo turned into blackmail. He began to tell her that she needed to send him more photos and videos or he was going to send her parents the first photo that she sent. He told her that he knew where she lived and recited her home address to her. By the way, it is not hard for people to get your home address if they know what they are doing online. She didn’t know how he got her home address, but she felt stuck. It wasn’t until one day that the FBI came knocking at her door telling her parents that their daughter was a victim of online sexual exploitation.

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