The Iowa Department of Public Safety has been made aware of a new online extortion scam, where individuals are posing as law enforcement officers who are supervising the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces. Reports have been coming in from Iowa and other states that follow the same pattern. A male victim is first contacted via an online dating app or website by an alleged female. After a few days, the female will suggest the conversation moves offline to texting, at which time the conversation turns more intimate. This leads to the exchange of nude photos and discussions of meeting in the near future. After the male receives the nude photo of the female, he gets a call from a person claiming to be an ICAC task force supervisor. The caller tells the male that the female is underage and there is now child pornography on his phone and the female’s father’s phone, which she supposedly used to send the messages. The phony ICAC supervisor then advises the male he will need to replace the father’s phone or face legal action. Later, typically that same day, the victim receives a call from someone claiming to be the father who demands several hundred dollars via wire transfer to replace the phone. Investigations have revealed perpetrators are using phones with out of state area codes and the fake law enforcement officer even has a professional voicemail identifying them as the ICAC supervisor with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI). Anyone who believes they have already been a victim to this, or who becomes a victim, is urged to call local law enforcement to report the scam.
