"Alert issued to ALL UK children
over online 'sextortion epidemic':
Police warn foreign gangs are blackmailing hundreds of kids over intimate pics -
as mother of victim, 16,
who took his own life
issues plea to other desperate youngsters.
Teachers were given an unprecedented alert yesterday about pupils being targeted in 'sextortion' scams.
The National Crime Agency warned all 570,000 primary and secondary teachers across Britain that children as young as five are at risk.
is the first time the NCA has issued a national alert to schools and experts say it is urgently needed to stem a 'sextortion epidemic'.
Ruthless criminal gangs from West Africa and South East Asia are luring in children online, tricking them into believing they are in a genuine relationship or friendship with someone their own age before demanding they share intimate photographs or film themselves on a webcam.
Blackmailers then threaten to release nude or semi-nude photos of them, either real or fake, to their friends and family unless they pay up.
The NCA warned yesterday that at least three children killed themselves as a result.
In December, Murray Dowey, 16, from Dunblane, Perthshire, took his own life hours after being targeted in a sextortion blackmail plot with potential links to Nigeria."
Hundreds of children blackmailed online in 'sextortion epidemic'
In December, Murray Dowey, 16, (pictured) from Dunblane, Perthshire, took his own life hours after being targeted in a sextortion blackmail plot with potential links to Nigeria .
