Sextortion: When AI meets extortion, it’s children who pay the price

Sextortion is one of the fastest-growing digital crimes targeting teenagers and young adults. International criminal gangs are exploiting victims for financial gain, often with devastating consequences.

The common thread is financial: the money is extorted and laundered through our financial systems.

While media coverage tends to focus on individual cases, few have examined the scale, global sophistication, and financial mechanics behind these criminal networks and the role of AI in accelerating the threat.

So, what can the financial industry do to detect and disrupt sextortion-related money flows? Preventing and detecting this crime requires coordination between social media platforms, financial institutions, and law enforcement.

Watch our sextortion webinar

We recently hosted a webinar to discuss the issue. The session moved the issue beyond awareness to discuss operational detail, focusing on how the crime works, where the money flows, and what financial institutions can do about it.

Silvija Krupena, director of RedCompass Labs’ Financial Intelligence Unit, was joined by Paulina M. Peters of the Old National Bank, Sharon Winkler of Online Harms Prevention, and Paul Raffile, a Campaigner and Cybercrime Intelligence & Investigations Leader for the webinar.

It includes:

• An end-to-end view of how sextortion operates, including the financial flows that enable it
• How generative AI is accelerating the scale, speed, and sophistication of the attacks
• Practical tips and red flags your institution can use to detect sextortion-related activity
• Concrete steps for cross-sector collaboration to strengthen prevention, detection, and victim protection

Watch the full webinar above.