How online scammers are capitalizing on shame, embarrassment, and fear in teens.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Lily Jamali.

Last year, the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NICMIC, got more than 10,000

tips about minors extorted in sexting scams.

The number is even higher so far this year.

And what authorities are noticing is that in a lot of these cases, boys are the target.

It often starts with direct messages on social media, flirting leads to requests for explicit

photos, and as soon as they hit send, the person on the other end threatens to share the

photos unless they get paid.

freelance reporter Chris Moody wrote about what's being called sex extortion for the Washington

Post.

And a warning that our conversation includes a mention of teen suicide.

Sextortion, of course, is a combination of two words sex and extortion.

We're usually talking about scammers that are going after girls in hopes of getting explicit

images from them online.

But what we have seen more recently is financial sex extortion.

And that is targeting primarily boys.

And one of the boys that you profile in your piece is a minor who you refer to as Christopher

from Ohio.

Tell me his story.

So Christopher did not have social media.

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