QUINCY, Ill.— As technology continues to advance, law enforcement agencies are reminding people to be cautious about what they do and see online during Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
The Adams County Sheriff’s Office says people should take additional precautions online because it can be easier for scammers to deceive someone behind a screen.
“I think anything online you should be more careful than something you do in person, because you, you are easier, or it’s easier to be tricked into doing something online than it would be if you’re in person,” said Chief Deputy Patrick Frazier with the Adams County Sherriff’s Office. “Like, if you do banking at the bank you’re actually seeing the person. You know what you’re doing with your money and where it’s going.”
According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, cyber threats are becoming faster and more sophisticated. New and evolving technology is accelerating the rate at which hackers can identify and exploit weaknesses online.
Law enforcement officials say online safety is especially important for younger people using social media.
“For the teens, I think the parents ought to be having a conversation with them about social media and how they’re using their devices,” Frazier said. “They ought to monitor that as well, make sure that they’re not using them in a situation that might lead to something like this.”
One major area of concern for law enforcement is online extortion, which Frazier says can impact people of all ages.
“We’ve seen it involve all age groups. We’ve seen it in teens where they might share a picture on social media and then they find out that the person they thought they were sending it to is somebody different, and that person is demanding money for them not to share it with their parents or the school,” Frazier said. “We’ve also seen adults share it, and they might be former acquaintances, and they’ll share those photographs trying to get money.”
For victims of online extortion who discover explicit images of themselves online, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office points to the federal “Take It Down” service as a resource.
“A federal group that is able to maybe find those items on the internet and remove them. There’s federal agencies that can do that sort of thing that we don’t have access to, obviously,” Frazier said. “We don’t have the technology here at Adams County to be able to get into computer systems and scrub the web, so to speak. It’s kinda like a do not call list. That’s taken care of outside of us.”
Frazier says encourage people to remain cautious about who they communicate with online, what information or images they share and where their money is going.
If you suspect your child is a victim of online extortion, you should reach out to law enforcement immediately. Do not message the predator telling them who you are, and do not erase anything, as the messages are evidence of the predator’s crimes.
