DENVER (KDVR) The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Denver Office released a warning in a post on X Tuesday morning about extortion and self-harm networks targeting minors.

FBI Denver said that 764, a decentralized and transnational sextortion network, is seeing an increase in activity, as well as other violent online networks that operate in the United States and around the globe.

The networks methodically target and exploit minors and other vulnerable individuals through means of threats, blackmail and manipulation to extort victims. The networks often force people to produce, share or livestream acts of self-harm, animal cruelty, sexually explicit acts and suicide.

The video is then recirculated back into the networks to continue to blackmail the creator and exert control over them, according to the FBI website.

The FBI said that motives are primarily individual and can include sexual gratification, increasing social status, a sense of belonging or a mix of other reasons that may not be ideologically motivated.

Victims can be targeted through social media, mobile apps and gaming platforms. Underage girls are the most targeted demographic, but anyone can be a victim. The victims are typically between 10 and 17 years of age, but the FBI has reports of people as young as nine.

The populations targeted are usually those who struggle with mental health, eating disorders or suicidal ideation, according to the FBI.

The FBI has several resources for those who may notice a change in family or friend’s behavior:

• For parents, caregivers and teachers
• Take It Down: To help remove nude photos from the internet
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center
• FBI field offices
• National Center for Missing or Exploited Children: CyberTipLine

The FBI said that some of the most common methods used to blackmail victims include:

• Swatting Making a false emergency report that the victim has committed a crime to attempt to get armed police officers or SWAT teams dispatched to the victim’s house.
• Doxxing Blackmailing a victim by gathering their “personally identifiable information” and publishing it online. This could be anything ranging from addresses, family addresses or even sensitive documents.
• Fansigning Blackmailing the victim into cutting specific numbers, letters, symbols or names into the skin of their body.

The FBI said that the extortionists control their victims through extreme fear by using the threat of publishing personal information or content to the internet and sharing it with family or friends of the victim, among other things.

Incidents often occur after establishing some form of trusting or romantic relationship. They start with minor requests before gradually increasing demands for the severity of harmful behavior.

The FBI also said that the endgame for many of the blackmailers is to get the victim to livestream their suicide for the person’s entertainment or to enhance their fame as an extortionist.

The FBI urges people to be extremely vigilant when posting personal photos, videos or personal information online and through direct messages.