Police sound alarm about ‘sextortion’ scams

ERIK PINDERA

LAW enforcement and child protection officials are warning that “sextortion” scams targeting victims in Winnipeg and elsewhere in Canada have skyrocketed in recent years.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Stephen Spencer said the department is seeing a “continuous rise” in reports of the sexually exploitative blackmail scheme.

“These numbers are quite concerning,” Spencer told a news conference Wednesday. “Beyond these numbers, I know that there’s other (police) agencies that are experiencing the same issues, all across Canada.”

City police received 223 reports of extortion last year, almost all of which were incidents of sextortion, said Spencer. That’s up from 213 in 2024, 165 in 2023, 56 in 2022, 31 in 2021 and just 19 in 2020, he said. He did not have statistics on charges related to sextortion to provide Wednesday.

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