Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There was a good story that came out yesterday and
the scandal this why do I keep calling the scandal
this scam is Honestly, it's one of the biggest scams
going on in the world. And they get contacted teenage
boys mostly Again, I'm not saying it doesn't happen to
teenage girls, but the numbers are astronomical of teenage boys.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Between the ages.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Kind of the bulk is thirteen to nineteen, could be younger,
could be older, but kind of that bulk is thirteen
to nineteen years old. And they'll get contacted on Instagram,
They'll get contacted through WhatsApp, They'll get a text, they
will get reached in some way, shape or form under
(00:50):
the belief that they are talking to a girl who
is interested in them who and the girl will tell them, oh,
I got your I got your handle through a friend,
you know, whatever it is. That part will be key
on how they contacted them, and then it turns into
(01:11):
exactly what you think it is. They'll send you. They'll
send your kid a picture of themselves topless. It's not them,
it's just some image they stole from somewhere, and they'll
ask your son send me a picture of.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Your genitals, and they'll say no.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
And then they'll say or they'll send something and they'll
go no, no, no, like give me the whole thing,
and they will, and again, don't be mad at them yet.
And then the person that you send it to turns
out it's not some hot girl that's interested in them.
(01:56):
It is somebody who's going to within minutes, I want
this much money, or I'm sending it to everybody in
your contact list, which is how they got your information.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
And they are relentless.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Normally it's a it's a number that is manageable, one
hundred dollars, eighty dollars, one hundred and twenty dollars. And
the first thought they have is, oh, crap, I don't
want to I don't want this going to all my friends.
You know, it's it's ninety percent of the time it's
(02:42):
them with an erection sending a picture with some goofy face,
and the first thing that goes through their mind is
I do not want all my friends seeing this, and
so they'll bend mow them, they'll zell them one hundred bucks.
And the second it goes through, here comes the new
and it is relentless, And we just had this whole
(03:09):
conversation coming back from the Hope Awards with the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children who have.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Been hammering and hammering and hammering.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Do something, Help fix this, Help fix this, Help fix this.
So I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I saw that
Instagram is now taking some steps to try to crack
down on how massive of a problem this is. Is
it going to cure it? Absolutely not?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
So this is something on top of those teen accounts
they rolled out rightly.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, so if you go back a couple of weeks,
right that was kind of the starting point where they
rolled out teen accounts, which kind of inherently came with
protections that were kind of more visible for parents to
see and to understand.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Number one.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Meta, the parent company released a statement yesterday saying that
the settings starting with hiding your kids followers list like
they won't be able to see that, which is great
because they'll go through whether whether your kid does it
(04:30):
or not. It's a mailing list, whether your kid does
it or not, they will go through and find everybody
on that list and just start sending it out.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
They don't have to go hunting for teenage boys.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Your kids did it for them, and by the way,
I'm not blaming them.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, I don't even think that was part of the
teen accounts, the whole thing, being like it was a
child's experience guided by you, the parent. I don't remember
that being.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
No, this was brand new.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
This was brand new that came out, and it's very
smart because it is and again it's not your kid's fault,
but they just go through it is it's a shopping list,
So that was number one. Instagram will also show teens
in the US, Britain and Canada and Australia a video
(05:22):
in their feeds about how to spot sex stortion scams.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
All you want them to do is take a half
a second to think awareness. That's it, half a second
to think.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
So they're seeing this when when there is a questionable
message that I don't know, when does that pop up?
So then they say.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Instagram's nudity protection feature, which blurs potentially nude images and
then nudges teens before they send one, will be on
automatically for all teen accounts globally. Users can no longer
screenshot is it ephemeral messages?
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yeah, like Snapchat. Why does it disappear after a certa
amount of time?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Right one way that scammers obtained sensitive images. Again, I'm
no expert in this world, but I'll take every one.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Of those that sounds like positive steps, every one of them.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I'm sure there's a laundry list that if I talk
to oh, what is her name? I met her too,
Haley at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
where young men teen sextortion. She has kind of been
the driving force, brilliant lady named Haley. I'm sure she
(06:45):
would say, I wish they would also do ABCD and E.
I would hope, and I didn't call Haley. I would
hope that she would see what Instagram did yesterday and
go good. These are good first steps, I hope because
I saw it and felt like, thank.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
God for the blurring. That's not unfamiliar. I just looked
it up. They tested that in April. But now it's
going to be the default globally.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Good. Good and listen.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I could, I could, and I won't, but I could
give you a list of kids all in my kids circles.
They've all gotten it, yeh every one of them. Whether
they've I don't I don't. I don't want to say
fallen for it because it may. I just hate I
hate making the kids sound stupid, and it's easy to
get mad at them. But the one thing that the
(07:44):
center will tell you, if your kid has the nuts
to come to you and go, I need help, whether
they've already spent the hundred bucks for the first time out,
be proud of them. Don't be mad at them. And
it is it's so easy to get frustrated and go,
you gotta be e f and kidding me, what did
(08:06):
you do?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
That is a natural reaction.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Don't.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And then the other thing is report it. A lot
of times people won't. A lot of times people will go,
whether it's out of embarrassment, whether they think it's not
going to happen, like, oh, we just we're just going
to ignore it.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Report it.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I feel like your friends and law enforcement have told
you this for all scam based crimes, because you can
be embarrassed in a non sextortion scam just because you
feel like duped. Yeah, like that, you shouldn't have fallen
for it, right, You've always preached that that absolutely helps
(08:52):
produce a timeline and a possible paper trail.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And when I tell you, if your kid hasn't been
wrapped up in this yet, the word relentless is such
an understatement. They will hammer them and hammer them and
hammer them. So whether it is fear of if this
(09:20):
gets out to my friends, I'm going to pay one
hundred bucks and that turns into a lot more, or
if it is I just want them to stop. I'll
pay them once and it'll stop. It doesn't, they will
pound them. And then there's also, by the way, the
National Center has so much information online, including a website
(09:44):
called take It Down, which will find the digital footprint
of that picture and start ripping it. But also get
a and again, I understand you don't want to all
the cops because in your head you may go, now,
this isn't a real this is an emergency.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You have to.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Call whatever county you're in, Montgomery County Police, Fairfax County Police,
Chesterfield County Police. It does not matter. A lot of
them are overseas. But that's okay. I told you, coming
after the Hope Awards, the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children has taken law enforcement and sent them overseas.
(10:30):
Nigeria is a hotbed, so they're taking. They've taken law
enforcement from the US, taken them to Nigeria to train
cops in Nigeria how to go after these people.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
As this meta has taken down sixty three thousand accounts
associated with these rings, including thousands from the same Nigeria
based collective.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's a call center and they are making bank.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
And worse, killing kids.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Well, that was the next thing I was going to
get to is.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
I know it sounds counterintuitive to be proud of them,
but there are so many goddamn kids in caskets because
they're afraid to say something to their parents. They're embarrassed
to say something to their parents, their parents' reaction is
(11:30):
so negative. There are thousands of dead kids because of it.
So when they get it, and I would bet, I
would bet such incredible numbers they're all going to get it,
(11:53):
help them guide them. Be proud of them, because it
is a laundry list of names of kids who don't
have that relationship with their parents, who are afraid to
say something to their parents, or their parents' reaction was
so demeaning they kill themselves and everything short of it.
(12:23):
So God bless the National Center. I know they have
been putting pressure on them for years to please do
something to help.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Well, that's why some of the criticism of these new
tools is okay, but it's a little too little, too late, right,
But you have to think of it moving forward.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yes, And that's why I said, like, I would love
to talk to Haley from the Center or Stacy and
just go, hey, are yes, I'm sure Like I said,
I'm sure there are these next steps that they want.
But I at least felt like, now it's something we've
at least started. But this has been going on for
(13:06):
years and they've been getting hammered for years do something,
So I'm glad that they did.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I don't know if it's enough, but I'll at least
take it as a positive step unless I'm dumb, and
then Haley will tell me.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
No.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
I mean, listen, these companies got the kids addicted to
their social media platforms at the first place, using poisonous algorithms.
So these companies created their own problem. But now we
need tools to help.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
But it's scary.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
So too little is better than nothing.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
That's true. That's true.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Line too, Hi Elliot the morning, Hey in morning, Hey, Yes, ma'am,
what can I do for you did your son get it?
Speaker 6 (14:04):
Yeah, this was last year.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
He was thirteen.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
How far down the road did he.
Speaker 7 (14:11):
Get so he this was over text message, not social media,
but he.
Speaker 6 (14:23):
Sent the picture because they were posing as someone else.
And then they immediately asked for one hundred dollars. Yep,
we found out because I thought that come out of
our account in the middle of the night and questioned him. He,
you know, had some bogus story and then something just
(14:46):
didn't sound right, so we pressed him a little further
and he broke down. He was still upset. They were
telling him that they were going to come after his
family and kill his family if he didn't continue to
send money. And it got pretty bad.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Oh sure.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And by the way, by the way, I'm glad, I'm
glad that he told you. And yes, it's not just Instagram.
They'll find email accounts, they'll find phone numbers, they will
find it all and just hammer away. But you're the
other thing about oh you have to, you have to.
But I'm glad you said he was thirteen. I'm not
(15:25):
glad that had happened to him, obviously. I hope you
understand that. But older kids, older kids where they'll go
we're gonna Let mean think about it.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
You get old, you get smarter as you get older.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
So like with older kids, the threat of harming the
family generally goes away, but they know that those kids
have access to more money. The younger kids are the
ones where they'll strike the fear of the family in you,
so that you keep going, don't say anything, will come
after you. We already know your phone number, we know
where you live. Listen, they're kids, they're thirteen years old.
(16:00):
Did you report it?
Speaker 4 (16:04):
We did not.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
We've blocked the number and all of that. I've been
listening to you, and I wish we would have. We
honestly thought, oh, well, they're not going to be able
to do anything about it because this is overseas, and
what are they going to do?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
And by the way, I'm not mad at you. That
is a very normal thought process. It is probably that
is the way more common thought process.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
But the and again this.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Is just from listening to the National Center talk about it.
If it happens to him again, he's thirteen or that
was last year, he's fourteen, I'll bet good money he'll
hear from them again, and they will say that if
you're a kid I hope this wasn't the case with you. Well,
let me finish the first lot. If it happens again,
report it, please report it. The more that it gets reported,
(16:50):
the better. And I know it feels like they're overseas,
they're in Nigeria, won't.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
It will help?
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, But I was gonna say the other thing that
they'll tell you. Thank you, ma'am. And I'm glad your
kids said something, even if he had to break him down,
I'm glad he said something. So you make the first thing,
you send the picture, you send the one hundred bucks. Then
starts the whole fight to get to get them to
leave you alone. You got to start changing passwords. You've
(17:16):
got to start changing accounts. You got to do all
of that. You got to hope the hounding stops and
it comes relentlessly, and the email gets reported, if they
email you, the phone number gets reported, if they texted you,
that phone number has already been shut off, that the
email account's already been closed. There's usually a the in
(17:37):
law enforcement told me this, there's usually.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
A good couple week to a month and a half
window where it's quiet, but then they come back, bam,
right back at it. And it's one of two things.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
To sort of low you into like, oh fine, thank god,
finally it's over.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, And it's one of two things. It's either a
for a moment, think of the bad guy as a salesman. Right, yeah,
I went out, I'm trying to get somebody to buy advertising.
They said, no, I'll go back and visit them. So
they follow up and they go, hey, you sent me
one hundred bucks, let's go right, like, okay, you tried
(18:16):
your little crap, now let's go.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Now I'm not kidding. You dicked with me, now we're
not kidding.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Or their name popped up on another list because they
got your kid's friend list, which went back and it
ended up and salesman b ended up going through that
list and found your kid's name. But there's usually just
when everybody starts breathing, okay, about a month later, there's
a nice reach around that comes and they start getting
(18:46):
hammered again. And a lot of times it's the same
person showing them I'm not going away. Here I go.
You may have blocked everything, but they've gotten that phone
number was blocked a second they sent it to you.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Where am I going? Kristen Line one.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Hi Ellie in the morning, hery elliot, how you go?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Hey, I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Just happened to my fifteen year old daughter about h
five or six years ago.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Right, she was.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
On Instagram and she does a lot of makeup, so
she was going got a lot of followers.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
This guy, you know, send her pictures as pictures of her.
She sent the pictures to him if he started having money. Luckily,
my wife will go through and check everybody's devices, he
you know, make sure nobody's going to need anything wrong,
and saw what was going on.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
We got in contact with the police.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
We tryed to he got the IP address. We have
a computer buddy that was trying.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
To track down the IP address, but by the time
we actually were going through the process and shut the
IP address down and we couldn't get an information about it.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Hey, did your did your wife catch it? Like had
she already sent money?
Speaker 4 (20:18):
No, not yet, but we caught it. She caught it
before Yeah, before any money got the panion did you
get it? Got it? Went?
Speaker 5 (20:27):
It went a step further because then they went to
uh it's a different app where they were starting to
like face time and do pictures and videos for faith time,
and then it got then they got into well, if
you don't continue doing this or give us money, we're.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Going to basically that blackmail.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
You send the video to videos and pictures to everybody
you know, and.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
YadA, YadA, goda.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Can I ask you a question, did you get man
ator or no?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
At first, I did, just because she knew, like we
we go through these things with the kids when it
comes to social media, like you don't know, you don't
follow anybody, you don't know, you don't talk to anybody
you don't know because of this pack. But after we
got through that, we you know, shut down talk to her,
(21:24):
and she kind.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Of understood more, especially after what happened.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
So we canceled out the account, quote everything out and
we haven't had as there.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Right, And that is I mean, listen, there's so many
hard parts in that, but one of the hardest parts
is not getting mad at him. And they'll and they'll
tell you, don't get mad at him because the next
time you won't be that lucky that that that they'll
talk to you.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
Yeah, true, but it's just I don't know, she's you know,
oh absolutely, we think it over and over and over
te learn her not to do it and then she
still did you know? You kind of get a little mad.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Oh sure, I told you absolutely.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
The repercussions of what you did, you know, but yeah,
I mean we've never we never got to trace it
back to who where it came from.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
But luckily nothing else came that client came of it.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Good.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Good, Hey, I appreciate the phone calls. R Your daughter
went through that. I appreciate it. And again it's not
just boys. It is mostly boys, but it could be girls.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
The same thing.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I'm happy to see. Because you mentioned the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children's Take It Down program, Yes,
but I wasn't sure if these actions and tools announced
yesterday by Instagram were engineered and developed with NCMEC. And
(22:52):
they were.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Oh good.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
So not only not only was the video that is
going to be in the feeds warning kids of the signs,
was it helped to be produced by the National Center,
it also is directing people not only to take it down,
but also to the cyber tip line.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Good. That's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
So again, I don't want to I don't want I
was happy to see that that happen. Listen, I got
two teenage boys. They have all teenage boyfriends. Everybody's getting it,
report it, get the information. And again, like that guy said,
(23:34):
I totally get that, dude. They're fifteen, and it's like,
oh Jesus Christ, how many times have we been talking
over this? Yeah, you've been over it a million times.
I get it. It is frustrating. It makes you want
to rip your hair out. The best thing you could
do is be proud of them. By the way, even
(23:54):
if they sent the first hundred dollars and then they
panicked and then they came to you, and now it's
been four days, five days. For five days, they've been squirming,
praying that it doesn't go to all their friends and
that you don't find out. And the last thing you
(24:16):
want to do is tell them how proud of them
you are. That's the first thing the Center said. Reemphasize
how proud of them you are that they came to you,
because again, it's not it's not hyperbole. There are thousands
(24:40):
and thousands and tens of thousands of kids who are
dead because they're afraid to say it. They know what
the actions reaction, or they believe they know what the
reaction is going to be. But good on the Center
for Working with Instagram, so that was good to see
There was a good story that came out yesterday and
the scandal this why do I keep calling the scandal
this scam is Honestly, it's one of the biggest scams
going on in the world. And they get contacted teenage
boys mostly Again, I'm not saying it doesn't happen to
teenage girls, but the numbers are astronomical of teenage boys.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Between the ages.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Kind of the bulk is thirteen to nineteen, could be younger,
could be older, but kind of that bulk is thirteen
to nineteen years old. And they'll get contacted on Instagram,
They'll get contacted through WhatsApp, They'll get a text, they
will get reached in some way, shape or form under
(00:50):
the belief that they are talking to a girl who
is interested in them who and the girl will tell them, oh,
I got your I got your handle through a friend,
you know, whatever it is. That part will be key
on how they contacted them, and then it turns into
(01:11):
exactly what you think it is. They'll send you. They'll
send your kid a picture of themselves topless. It's not them,
it's just some image they stole from somewhere, and they'll
ask your son send me a picture of.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Your genitals, and they'll say no.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
And then they'll say or they'll send something and they'll
go no, no, no, like give me the whole thing,
and they will, and again, don't be mad at them yet.
And then the person that you send it to turns
out it's not some hot girl that's interested in them.
(01:56):
It is somebody who's going to within minutes, I want
this much money, or I'm sending it to everybody in
your contact list, which is how they got your information.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
And they are relentless.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Normally it's a it's a number that is manageable, one
hundred dollars, eighty dollars, one hundred and twenty dollars. And
the first thought they have is, oh, crap, I don't
want to I don't want this going to all my friends.
You know, it's it's ninety percent of the time it's
(02:42):
them with an erection sending a picture with some goofy face,
and the first thing that goes through their mind is
I do not want all my friends seeing this, and
so they'll bend mow them, they'll zell them one hundred bucks.
And the second it goes through, here comes the new
and it is relentless, And we just had this whole
(03:09):
conversation coming back from the Hope Awards with the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children who have.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Been hammering and hammering and hammering.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Do something, Help fix this, Help fix this, Help fix this.
So I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I saw that
Instagram is now taking some steps to try to crack
down on how massive of a problem this is. Is
it going to cure it? Absolutely not?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
So this is something on top of those teen accounts
they rolled out rightly.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, so if you go back a couple of weeks,
right that was kind of the starting point where they
rolled out teen accounts, which kind of inherently came with
protections that were kind of more visible for parents to
see and to understand.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Number one.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Meta, the parent company released a statement yesterday saying that
the settings starting with hiding your kids followers list like
they won't be able to see that, which is great
because they'll go through whether whether your kid does it
(04:30):
or not. It's a mailing list, whether your kid does
it or not, they will go through and find everybody
on that list and just start sending it out.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
They don't have to go hunting for teenage boys.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Your kids did it for them, and by the way,
I'm not blaming them.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, I don't even think that was part of the
teen accounts, the whole thing, being like it was a
child's experience guided by you, the parent. I don't remember
that being.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
No, this was brand new.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
This was brand new that came out, and it's very
smart because it is and again it's not your kid's fault,
but they just go through it is it's a shopping list,
So that was number one. Instagram will also show teens
in the US, Britain and Canada and Australia a video
(05:22):
in their feeds about how to spot sex stortion scams.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
All you want them to do is take a half
a second to think awareness. That's it, half a second
to think.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
So they're seeing this when when there is a questionable
message that I don't know, when does that pop up?
So then they say.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Instagram's nudity protection feature, which blurs potentially nude images and
then nudges teens before they send one, will be on
automatically for all teen accounts globally. Users can no longer
screenshot is it ephemeral messages?
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yeah, like Snapchat. Why does it disappear after a certa
amount of time?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Right one way that scammers obtained sensitive images. Again, I'm
no expert in this world, but I'll take every one.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Of those that sounds like positive steps, every one of them.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I'm sure there's a laundry list that if I talk
to oh, what is her name? I met her too,
Haley at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
where young men teen sextortion. She has kind of been
the driving force, brilliant lady named Haley. I'm sure she
(06:45):
would say, I wish they would also do ABCD and E.
I would hope, and I didn't call Haley. I would
hope that she would see what Instagram did yesterday and
go good. These are good first steps, I hope because
I saw it and felt like, thank.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
God for the blurring. That's not unfamiliar. I just looked
it up. They tested that in April. But now it's
going to be the default globally.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Good. Good and listen.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I could, I could, and I won't, but I could
give you a list of kids all in my kids circles.
They've all gotten it, yeh every one of them. Whether
they've I don't I don't. I don't want to say
fallen for it because it may. I just hate I
hate making the kids sound stupid, and it's easy to
get mad at them. But the one thing that the
(07:44):
center will tell you, if your kid has the nuts
to come to you and go, I need help, whether
they've already spent the hundred bucks for the first time out,
be proud of them. Don't be mad at them. And
it is it's so easy to get frustrated and go,
you gotta be e f and kidding me, what did
(08:06):
you do?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
That is a natural reaction.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Don't.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And then the other thing is report it. A lot
of times people won't. A lot of times people will go,
whether it's out of embarrassment, whether they think it's not
going to happen, like, oh, we just we're just going
to ignore it.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Report it.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I feel like your friends and law enforcement have told
you this for all scam based crimes, because you can
be embarrassed in a non sextortion scam just because you
feel like duped. Yeah, like that, you shouldn't have fallen
for it, right, You've always preached that that absolutely helps
(08:52):
produce a timeline and a possible paper trail.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And when I tell you, if your kid hasn't been
wrapped up in this yet, the word relentless is such
an understatement. They will hammer them and hammer them and
hammer them. So whether it is fear of if this
(09:20):
gets out to my friends, I'm going to pay one
hundred bucks and that turns into a lot more, or
if it is I just want them to stop. I'll
pay them once and it'll stop. It doesn't, they will
pound them. And then there's also, by the way, the
National Center has so much information online, including a website
(09:44):
called take It Down, which will find the digital footprint
of that picture and start ripping it. But also get
a and again, I understand you don't want to all
the cops because in your head you may go, now,
this isn't a real this is an emergency.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You have to.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Call whatever county you're in, Montgomery County Police, Fairfax County Police,
Chesterfield County Police. It does not matter. A lot of
them are overseas. But that's okay. I told you, coming
after the Hope Awards, the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children has taken law enforcement and sent them overseas.
(10:30):
Nigeria is a hotbed, so they're taking. They've taken law
enforcement from the US, taken them to Nigeria to train
cops in Nigeria how to go after these people.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
As this meta has taken down sixty three thousand accounts
associated with these rings, including thousands from the same Nigeria
based collective.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's a call center and they are making bank.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
And worse, killing kids.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Well, that was the next thing I was going to
get to is.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
I know it sounds counterintuitive to be proud of them,
but there are so many goddamn kids in caskets because
they're afraid to say something to their parents. They're embarrassed
to say something to their parents, their parents' reaction is
(11:30):
so negative. There are thousands of dead kids because of it.
So when they get it, and I would bet, I
would bet such incredible numbers they're all going to get it,
(11:53):
help them guide them. Be proud of them, because it
is a laundry list of names of kids who don't
have that relationship with their parents, who are afraid to
say something to their parents, or their parents' reaction was
so demeaning they kill themselves and everything short of it.
(12:23):
So God bless the National Center. I know they have
been putting pressure on them for years to please do
something to help.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Well, that's why some of the criticism of these new
tools is okay, but it's a little too little, too late, right,
But you have to think of it moving forward.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yes, And that's why I said, like, I would love
to talk to Haley from the Center or Stacy and
just go, hey, are yes, I'm sure Like I said,
I'm sure there are these next steps that they want.
But I at least felt like, now it's something we've
at least started. But this has been going on for
(13:06):
years and they've been getting hammered for years do something,
So I'm glad that they did.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I don't know if it's enough, but I'll at least
take it as a positive step unless I'm dumb, and
then Haley will tell me.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
No.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
I mean, listen, these companies got the kids addicted to
their social media platforms at the first place, using poisonous algorithms.
So these companies created their own problem. But now we
need tools to help.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
But it's scary.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
So too little is better than nothing.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
That's true. That's true.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Line too, Hi Elliot the morning, Hey in morning, Hey, Yes, ma'am,
what can I do for you did your son get it?
Speaker 6 (14:04):
Yeah, this was last year.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
He was thirteen.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
How far down the road did he.
Speaker 7 (14:11):
Get so he this was over text message, not social media,
but he.
Speaker 6 (14:23):
Sent the picture because they were posing as someone else.
And then they immediately asked for one hundred dollars. Yep,
we found out because I thought that come out of
our account in the middle of the night and questioned him. He,
you know, had some bogus story and then something just
(14:46):
didn't sound right, so we pressed him a little further
and he broke down. He was still upset. They were
telling him that they were going to come after his
family and kill his family if he didn't continue to
send money. And it got pretty bad.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Oh sure.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And by the way, by the way, I'm glad, I'm
glad that he told you. And yes, it's not just Instagram.
They'll find email accounts, they'll find phone numbers, they will
find it all and just hammer away. But you're the
other thing about oh you have to, you have to.
But I'm glad you said he was thirteen. I'm not
(15:25):
glad that had happened to him, obviously. I hope you
understand that. But older kids, older kids where they'll go
we're gonna Let mean think about it.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
You get old, you get smarter as you get older.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
So like with older kids, the threat of harming the
family generally goes away, but they know that those kids
have access to more money. The younger kids are the
ones where they'll strike the fear of the family in you,
so that you keep going, don't say anything, will come
after you. We already know your phone number, we know
where you live. Listen, they're kids, they're thirteen years old.
(16:00):
Did you report it?
Speaker 4 (16:04):
We did not.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
We've blocked the number and all of that. I've been
listening to you, and I wish we would have. We
honestly thought, oh, well, they're not going to be able
to do anything about it because this is overseas, and
what are they going to do?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
And by the way, I'm not mad at you. That
is a very normal thought process. It is probably that
is the way more common thought process.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
But the and again this.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Is just from listening to the National Center talk about it.
If it happens to him again, he's thirteen or that
was last year, he's fourteen, I'll bet good money he'll
hear from them again, and they will say that if
you're a kid I hope this wasn't the case with you. Well,
let me finish the first lot. If it happens again,
report it, please report it. The more that it gets reported,
(16:50):
the better. And I know it feels like they're overseas,
they're in Nigeria, won't.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
It will help?
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, But I was gonna say the other thing that
they'll tell you. Thank you, ma'am. And I'm glad your
kids said something, even if he had to break him down,
I'm glad he said something. So you make the first thing,
you send the picture, you send the one hundred bucks. Then
starts the whole fight to get to get them to
leave you alone. You got to start changing passwords. You've
(17:16):
got to start changing accounts. You got to do all
of that. You got to hope the hounding stops and
it comes relentlessly, and the email gets reported, if they
email you, the phone number gets reported, if they texted you,
that phone number has already been shut off, that the
email account's already been closed. There's usually a the in
(17:37):
law enforcement told me this, there's usually.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
A good couple week to a month and a half
window where it's quiet, but then they come back, bam,
right back at it. And it's one of two things.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
To sort of low you into like, oh fine, thank god,
finally it's over.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, And it's one of two things. It's either a
for a moment, think of the bad guy as a salesman. Right, yeah,
I went out, I'm trying to get somebody to buy advertising.
They said, no, I'll go back and visit them. So
they follow up and they go, hey, you sent me
one hundred bucks, let's go right, like, okay, you tried
(18:16):
your little crap, now let's go.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Now I'm not kidding. You dicked with me, now we're
not kidding.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Or their name popped up on another list because they
got your kid's friend list, which went back and it
ended up and salesman b ended up going through that
list and found your kid's name. But there's usually just
when everybody starts breathing, okay, about a month later, there's
a nice reach around that comes and they start getting
(18:46):
hammered again. And a lot of times it's the same
person showing them I'm not going away. Here I go.
You may have blocked everything, but they've gotten that phone
number was blocked a second they sent it to you.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Where am I going? Kristen Line one.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Hi Ellie in the morning, hery elliot, how you go?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Hey, I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Just happened to my fifteen year old daughter about h
five or six years ago.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Right, she was.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
On Instagram and she does a lot of makeup, so
she was going got a lot of followers.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
This guy, you know, send her pictures as pictures of her.
She sent the pictures to him if he started having money. Luckily,
my wife will go through and check everybody's devices, he
you know, make sure nobody's going to need anything wrong,
and saw what was going on.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
We got in contact with the police.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
We tryed to he got the IP address. We have
a computer buddy that was trying.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
To track down the IP address, but by the time
we actually were going through the process and shut the
IP address down and we couldn't get an information about it.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Hey, did your did your wife catch it? Like had
she already sent money?
Speaker 4 (20:18):
No, not yet, but we caught it. She caught it
before Yeah, before any money got the panion did you
get it? Got it? Went?
Speaker 5 (20:27):
It went a step further because then they went to
uh it's a different app where they were starting to
like face time and do pictures and videos for faith time,
and then it got then they got into well, if
you don't continue doing this or give us money, we're.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Going to basically that blackmail.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
You send the video to videos and pictures to everybody
you know, and.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
YadA, YadA, goda.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Can I ask you a question, did you get man
ator or no?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
At first, I did, just because she knew, like we
we go through these things with the kids when it
comes to social media, like you don't know, you don't
follow anybody, you don't know, you don't talk to anybody
you don't know because of this pack. But after we
got through that, we you know, shut down talk to her,
(21:24):
and she kind.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Of understood more, especially after what happened.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
So we canceled out the account, quote everything out and
we haven't had as there.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Right, And that is I mean, listen, there's so many
hard parts in that, but one of the hardest parts
is not getting mad at him. And they'll and they'll
tell you, don't get mad at him because the next
time you won't be that lucky that that that they'll
talk to you.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
Yeah, true, but it's just I don't know, she's you know,
oh absolutely, we think it over and over and over
te learn her not to do it and then she
still did you know? You kind of get a little mad.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Oh sure, I told you absolutely.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
The repercussions of what you did, you know, but yeah,
I mean we've never we never got to trace it
back to who where it came from.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
But luckily nothing else came that client came of it.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Good.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Good, Hey, I appreciate the phone calls. R Your daughter
went through that. I appreciate it. And again it's not
just boys. It is mostly boys, but it could be girls.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
The same thing.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I'm happy to see. Because you mentioned the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children's Take It Down program, Yes,
but I wasn't sure if these actions and tools announced
yesterday by Instagram were engineered and developed with NCMEC. And
(22:52):
they were.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Oh good.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
So not only not only was the video that is
going to be in the feeds warning kids of the signs,
was it helped to be produced by the National Center,
it also is directing people not only to take it down,
but also to the cyber tip line.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Good. That's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
So again, I don't want to I don't want I
was happy to see that that happen. Listen, I got
two teenage boys. They have all teenage boyfriends. Everybody's getting it,
report it, get the information. And again, like that guy said,
(23:34):
I totally get that, dude. They're fifteen, and it's like,
oh Jesus Christ, how many times have we been talking
over this? Yeah, you've been over it a million times.
I get it. It is frustrating. It makes you want
to rip your hair out. The best thing you could
do is be proud of them. By the way, even
(23:54):
if they sent the first hundred dollars and then they
panicked and then they came to you, and now it's
been four days, five days. For five days, they've been squirming,
praying that it doesn't go to all their friends and
that you don't find out. And the last thing you
(24:16):
want to do is tell them how proud of them
you are. That's the first thing the Center said. Reemphasize
how proud of them you are that they came to you,
because again, it's not it's not hyperbole. There are thousands
(24:40):
and thousands and tens of thousands of kids who are
dead because they're afraid to say it. They know what
the actions reaction, or they believe they know what the
reaction is going to be. But good on the Center
for Working with Instagram, so that was good to see
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