SEXTORTION is soaring with the number of victims at an all-time high, figures show.
Cases of criminals posing as potential lovers to trick people into sending intimate images before blackmailing them rose to 37,907 last year.
It compares with 16,000 in April 2020 - March 2021 when Covid lockdowns saw many stuck indoors on computers.
Last year’s total is also more than ten times that of a decade ago, according to analysis by The Sun.
Police are having mixed success in halting the scams, most of which are perpetrated online from abroad.
In the year to March 2024 fewer than one per cent of offenders — 178 — were charged and hauled before judges.
Two thirds of police investigations — 24,790 — failed to identify a suspect. Another 10,000 were binned over difficulties securing evidence to nail a blackmailer in court.
Many cases will not have been reported out of shame.
Dozens of young people, mostly men, have killed themselves in the past five years having fallen prey to plots.
Last year, Scot Murray Dowey, 16, took his own life after being targeted by someone posing as a young woman keen to strike up a friendship.
Wayne Webb, of charity Scam Survivors, said: “Because this is such a common and successful scam, the number of groups doing it is always increasing. We have found organised groups from Nigeria.
“If you are contacted out of the blue, always be suspicious, and if someone is unable to actually speak to you then you know something is amiss.
“They are always using pre-recorded videos, so the easiest way to establish if it’s fake is to ask them to do something unusual like the YMCA.
“People who have been affected should know help is out there and they can contact charities for assistance.”
