The Underage Scam is a Dangerous Version of Sextortion

Scammers are always innovating with new ways to make you afraid and steal your money. Sextortion is one of those ways. It’s already a devastating scam with huge consequences. But a variation on sextortion called the underage scam (or sometimes the “underage girl scam”) has the same consequences – and the scammer’s story sounds much more convincing.

How Sextortion Works

Sextortion combines the words “sex” and “extortion” to describe this type of scam. Often, a scammer catfishes you and eventually convinces you to send nude images. (Less often, they may contact you and claim that they’ve hacked your phone or computer and got inappropriate images of you that way.) Either way, they will demand money or they will send your inappropriate images to your family and/or employer.

It’s a horrible scam with devastating consequences. Many victims lose thousands of dollars or more, and every victim experiences emotional distress. Some people have even committed suicide over it. And sextortion targets everyone, regardless of age or gender. In fact, teenagers are an especially common target for this scam.

If you want to learn more about sextortion, check out this article.

The Underage Scam

The underage scam is a variation on sextortion. It still involves the same basic principles – pretending to be a potential romantic partner, including some kind of sexual element, and threatening you unless you pay money. But it uses a very different pretext than most sextortion. And it’s significantly more realistic and convincing to many people.

How the Underage Scam Starts

Underage scams most often start on dating apps or websites. The scammer’s profile is of a young person, most often a young woman (hence the name “underage girl scam”), but can occasionally be a young man. It looks like a normal, real person – there often aren’t any suspicious signs just by looking at the profile. Once you get talking to this person, the conversation seems normal. There generally aren’t a lot of grammar mistakes and it doesn’t feel like you’re talking to a bot.

Eventually, they ask you to move from the dating app or site to texting or a different app. Sometimes they say it’s because they prefer texting, sometimes it’s explicitly because they want to send you nudes. Regardless of the reason, at some point after you move the conversation to a different app, they will send you nude images. Sending you those images is the beginning of the scam.

The Extortion Part

Next, you get a call. Most often the caller pretends to be either a police officer or the parent of the person you were talking to. They tell you that the girl was actually underage, and because she sent you nudes, you received child porn. The parents are going to prosecute you and you’ll go to jail as a pedophile. But if you pay for one particular expense this whole situation caused, they won’t prosecute you.

The behind that expense varies. Some of the stories that have been reported previously include:

• The girl destroyed an expensive laptop or phone when caught.
• The parents cancelled the girl’s phone and the carrier charged early termination fees.
• She attempted suicide or needed therapy from the ordeal, resulting in hospital or therapist bills.
• The parents sent her to a military boot camp (with expensive tuition) as punishment.
• She wrecked a car while driving to go meet you.

Whatever the story, they’ll make it sound like your fault. And they’ll press hard on the threats of being arrested and jailed and everyone knowing you as a pedophile. The situation sounds reasonable – the girl looks young enough that she could plausibly be underage, and none of these expenses seem ridiculous on the surface. And the consequences that they’re threatening you with seem so dire that it seems like the only option is to pay the parents for the damages so the situation will go away. It’s a logical train of thought in this situation. That’s how victims get caught by this scam.

Spot an Underage Scam

The good news is that once the scam part of an underage scam starts, you can easily identify that it’s a scam. This situation never happens in real life. A police officer won’t call to warn you that a parent is pressing charges. You’ll get an official notice in the mail if they do take legal action against you, or if there’s evidence to arrest you, the police will just show up. And no real parent is going to consider the money an appropriate reason to not prosecute you for having inappropriate photos of their underage child. There is no legitimate solution where money is the answer here. So if you get that story, it’s a scam.

You can also watch out for other common signs of a scam. Beware pressure and urgency. They tell you to act now and send money immediately or there are going to be big consequences. Scammers want you to send money before you have a chance to think about it. Fear and threats are big warning signs, as well. These scammers may elaborate on how you’re going to be prosecuted and jailed, your family will find out you’re a pedophile, your life will be ruined, and other horrible things. They’re trying to get you emotional so you act without thinking.

Finally, be aware of suspicious ways of sending money and resistance to normal requests. Scammers don’t want normal ways of sending money. They want something instant and anonymous, like gift cards, apps like CashApp or Venmo, Western Union, MoneyGram, or cryptocurrency. And they definitely aren’t interested in meeting to discuss the matter, giving you their lawyer’s information, or hearing from your lawyer. Their whole goal is to get your money as quickly and irreversibly as possible.

Avoid Underage Scams

If you’re on dating apps, you can adjust your age filters to reduce a lot of these scammers. They often set their profile ages to 18 or 19. You can filter out a lot of these scammers by setting your age minimum as high as you’re comfortable with. A minimum of 20 will filter out most, but not all.

Keep conversations on the app until you meet in person. It’s easier to block and report them as scammers on dating apps, and if they don’t have your phone number, it’s much harder to call you for the extortion part of the scam. Scammers also don’t like sending the images through dating apps, so they may just give up and move on if you refuse to move the conversation.

Don’t exchange nude photos with someone you’ve never met. If you haven’t seen their face in real life, you don’t need to see what’s under their clothes, and vice versa. If they offer nudes, tell them you don’t want them until you’ve met them. It’s harder if you plan on a long-distance relationship, but try to at least get them on a video chat first. With AI deepfakes, even a video chat isn’t foolproof. But many doing underage scams don’t have the equipment or the interest to do it. Be suspicious of anyone who avoids video chats.

Scammers put a lot of work into these profiles and conversations, and it’s often nearly impossible to tell from the outset if you’re talking to a real person or a scammer running an underage scam. Watch out for common signs of suspicious profiles. But your best defense is knowing this scam is out there and how to respond.

What to Do if You Encounter One

If you encounter an underage scam, stop all communication immediately. Stop responding to texts or answering the phone. If you’re on the phone when you realize, hang up on them. Don’t block them quite yet, though.

Next, if you sent money through any method, do what you can to report it and get it back. That may look like calling your bank, calling the number on the back of a gift card, reporting the transaction to Venmo, or something else depending on how you sent it. It’s unlikely you’ll actually get the money back, but the faster you act, the more likely it is. At the very least, reporting it helps these companies track fraud.

Third, collect documentation. Download any voicemails and screenshot relevant messages. Save these in a safe place. Then block them on your phone. If you’re still connected with them on a dating app or any other apps, report them and block them there, too.

Finally, report the scam to the FBI and the FTC and file a police report with your local police. This is where your voicemails and screenshots will be useful. It probably will not help you get your money back, and police may try to dissuade you from reporting. But reporting does three things: It gives law enforcement more information to potentially catch scammers in the future, it leaves a record that you were a victim in case they recover any money later, and it helps agencies measure the scope of the scam problem so they can put resources towards fighting it.

If you’re really concerned about the legal aspects of the matter, you can also consult a lawyer. A criminal defense or sex crimes lawyer will be able to tell you if you actually have anything to worry about legally.

Remember, There Is No Girl

The most important thing to remember is that the underage scam is using a false pretense and the threat of going to jail for child pornography to extort you. Scammers are unscrupulous and don’t care what they do to your emotions and your life as long as you pay. There is no girl, no parents, no police officer, no damaged whatever, and no bills or fees. It sounds plausible and terrifying, but none of it is real.

The good news is that this is one of the safest scams to ignore. As long as you haven’t sent nudes of yourself or any private information, all they have is your phone number. Since the girl isn’t real, they can’t prosecute anything – and they wouldn’t try even if they could, because the scammers are committing way more crimes than you are.

The underage scam is unfortunately hard to avoid. Your best defense is knowing how it works and how to identify it once the extortion element comes into play. Once you know it’s a scam, you can safely block the person, report it, and move on.