Criminals are selling guides on social media on how to carry out sextortion, BBC News has learned.
The guides show people how to pose as young women online, trick a victim into sending sexually explicit material and then blackmail them.

On Tuesday, Olamide Shanu appeared in court in London. He is believed to be part of a gang that made £2m from blackmailing adults and children online.
Last month the National Crime Agency issued an alert to schools across the UK, warning against the dangers of sextortion.Experts say there has been a sharp rise in children falling victim to sextortion carried out by gangs based in West Africa, mainly Nigeria.
In the UK, two British teenagers are known to have taken their own lives since October 2022 after becoming victims of sextortion.
Paul Raffile, an intelligence professional and expert on sextortion, describes the phenomenon as a “massive threat” to children.
“Internet scammers over these past two years have found out that they can get very rich very quickly by scamming an untapped market.
“And that’s teenagers,” he said.
Mr Raffile pointed out that adults have been targets for sextortion for years – and now teenage boys are among the most vulnerable.
“They are finding their victims by going on social media platforms and searching for high schools and youth sports teams, and then ‘following’ or ‘friending’,” he said.
BBC News has found that guides on how to carry out the crime are openly for sale in videos posted online.
It is described in detail how to set up untraceable phone numbers, create fake social media profiles and use secure payment methods.
Some boast about the number of people they have blackmailed – one wrote that a victim paid him regularly, “every Friday”.