Sexting criminals linked to suicide of Aussie teen nabbed in Nigeria in AFP sting
A sinister group of organised criminals who allegedly preyed on young Australian teens, including a 16-year-old boy who suicided, have been nabbed in an international sting targeting online sextortion.
Two of the 22 suspects nabbed in Nigeria are linked to the death of the child in NSW in 2023.
The AFP worked with the FBI, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to shut down the group allegedly responsible for a wave of sextortion targeting thousands of teenagers globally.
The network's scheme, which coerced victims into sharing sexually explicit images before threatening to distribute those images unless payment was made, had devastating consequences.
In the United States alone, more than 20 teenage suicides have been linked to sextortion-related cases since 2021. While many victims were based in North America, the ripple effects of the offending extended to Australia and other nations.
During the operation, two AFP investigators deployed in Nigeria were able to trace online activity, link digital evidence to suspects, and assist in the identification of both perpetrators and victims.
Investigators from the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) also provided expert analysis on data seized by foreign law enforcement and supported processes to avoid overlap with local investigations.
Their efforts created a measurable result locally – in the 2023–2024 financial year, the ACCCE received a total of 58,503 reports of online child exploitation, including 1554 sextortion-related reports.
These figures reflect the growing sophistication and volume of online abuse attempts targeting Australian children.
The targeting of Australian children by offenders online remains ongoing however, and the ACCCE continues to receive reports of sextortion from members of the community.
AFP Acting Commander Ben Moses, who leads the ACCCE, described the outcome as a powerful example of what could be achieved through international co-operation.
'This global operation sends a clear message to those who exploit children online. Law enforcement is united and determined to find you — no matter where you hide,' Acting Commander Moses said.
'These crimes are calculated and devastating, often pushing vulnerable young people into extreme distress.
'Thanks to the co-ordinated action of our partners, we achieved meaningful results including an immediate and significant reduction in sextortion reports across Australia.'
While a reduction in reports is encouraging, the AFP warns the risks to children and young people remain and the community should be vigilant about online safety.
The AFP continues to work with state and territory police to support victims of sextortion and other malicious online activity.
Victim support includes referrals to specialist mental health services, as well as collaboration with online platforms to have harmful content removed.
The AFP and its partners are committed to stopping online child sexual exploitation, and the ACCCE is driving a collaborative national approach to combating child abuse.
The ACCCE brings together specialist expertise and skills in a central hub, supporting investigations into online child sexual exploitation and developing prevention strategies focused on creating a safer online environment.
The AFP-led ThinkUKnow program has developed the online blackmail and sexual extortion response kit aimed at young people, aged 13 to 17, and is available from the ThinkUKnow and ACCCE websites.
The ACCCE has also created a dedicated sextortion help page with resources and information on how to report sextortion.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Telstra fined for disruption to emergency call service used by people with hearing, speech impairments
Telstra has again fallen short of regulator standards and community expectations in providing access to emergency services. The telco giant has paid a penalty and agreed to launch an independent review after it mistakenly disabled its connection to an emergency call relay service, which is used by people with hearing or speech impairments. In a life- or property-threatening time-critical emergency situation, Australians should contact triple-0 (000) — or, if they are using a type and listen or teletypewriter (TTY) device, they can dial 106 to be connected to police, fire or ambulance services. An Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found the 106 emergency call service number was inadvertently made unavailable for 12 hours and 46 minutes between July 5 and 6 2024, following a server migration process. TTY is a text-based communication method for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech impairments, allowing them to communicate via typed text over a phone line. A relay officer reads out the text a person types into their TTY device to an emergency operator. ACMA says it takes any disruption to an emergency call service very seriously, given there could be devastating consequences for members of the public. "This mistake could have contributed to very serious harm if someone who relies on this service had needed emergency assistance but was unable to get through," ACMA member and consumer lead Samantha Yorke said. "Fortunately, the records show no one attempted to use the 106 service for an emergency during the time the service was disabled." Under emergency call service rules, carriers must maintain the proper and effective functioning of their networks and facilities that are used to carry emergency calls. An analyst has raised concerns about the repeated failure of Australia's largest telecommunications providers to meet basic consumer needs. In December 2024, the ACMA imposed a $3 million penalty on Telstra after an investigation found 473 breaches of emergency call rules when Telstra's triple-0 call centre experienced a disruption for 90 minutes. "We've now had two major emergency service failures from Telstra in under a year," telecommunications consultant Paul Budde said, describing the incidents as "warning signs that core infrastructure is being compromised". Telstra has given the ACMA a court-enforceable undertaking to improve its relevant change management processes. It has also engaged an independent reviewer to look at the range of operational arrangements that support reliable delivery of the 106 emergency call service. "For years, Telstra has tried to position itself as a high-value tech company rather than a reliable utility," Mr Budde said. "But you can't build a shiny digital future on crumbling foundations. Telstra has also paid a penalty of $18,780, the maximum the ACMA could impose under the circumstances. Mr Budde said it was "pocket change" for the telco. "We need penalties that actually hurt — or better yet, incentives that reward doing the right thing." Optus was penalised a record $12 million by ACMA in late 2024 for a November 2023 network outage that caused considerable disruption to emergency call services. Telstra has committed to an independent review of its systems and says it will implement any reasonable recommendations of the review, develop and provide staff training and report regularly to ACMA on its progress implementing these undertakings. In a written statement, a Telstra spokesperson told the ABC that while no emergency calls failed during the disruption on July 6, 2024, the Telco understands the "critical importance of maintaining reliable emergency call services and the potential consequences of any disruption." 'We fully accept the findings of the ACMA and have committed to an independent review of our change management processes and operational arrangements to ensure such a mistake doesn't happen again,' the spokesperson said.
The Australian
2 hours ago
- The Australian
Murder trial date set in Samantha Murphy case
You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback. You can now listen to The Australian's articles. A trial date has been set for the man accused of murdering Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy. Patrick Orren Stephenson, who stands charged with Murphy's alleged murder, will stand trial from April 8 next year following an extended pre-trial process that will stretch into late 2025. The trial will begin shortly after the Easter period in 2026, bringing the case into the spotlight more than two years after Murphy's death. It comes after the accused was transported from Melbourne Assessment Prison to Enfield State Park, south of Ballarat, where excavators were used to dig up an undisclosed area. It was the second time Mr Stephenson was escorted to the site by police, after a similar operation in November last year. No human remains were located during either search. Murphy, a mother of three, vanished on February 4, 2023, after setting out on a 14km run through the Canadian State Forest, which she was known to frequent. Her disappearance triggered a major search involving police and volunteers, spanning bushland areas including the Canadian State Forest, Enfield State Park, and Buninyong Bushland Reserve. Mr Stephenson was arrested a month later and charged with her murder. He has pleaded not guilty and was committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court. Police have not disclosed what led them to return to the Enfield site, and there is no suggestion that Mr Stephenson's attendance indicates he knows the whereabouts of Murphy's body. In June last year, Murphy's credit cards, driver's licence, and iPhone – which was inside a teal-coloured cover – were recovered from the bottom of a dam in Buninyong. The phone was reportedly in near-perfect condition. Mohammad Alfares Journalist Mohammad Alfares, a journalist and a keen fisherman. Growing up, I would film and edit 'productions' I made with family friends every holiday. Combined with my love of writing and storytelling, being a journalist was the perfect fit! I obtained a Bachelor of Communication at Massey University in New Zealand and was lucky enough to get my first taste of the industry in broadcast journalism. Outside of work, I keep my hunger for adrenaline satisfied by chasing a big fish! I'll also find time to relax too, either with a cup of coffee or enjoying some fresh air and sunshine. Mohammad Alfares
The Australian
2 hours ago
- The Australian
Australia's highest-paid vice-chancellors' salaries and pay packets ranked
University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott. Jane Dempster/The Australian You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback. You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Mark Scott has a money problem and it is not finding the time to spend the $1.33m he was paid to be vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney last year. It's the perception that his pay packet encourages, and it is the same for university leaders across the country. As a class, V-Cs look opulent, out of touch and indifferent to public opinion. For institutions that still rely on public funding this is a big problem. Anthony Albanese is not about to 'Trump' the oldest and richest Australian universities, but if he did hit – like Harvard has been hit in the US – universities in Sydney and Melbourne would be light on for community support. Tasmanian senator Jacquie Lambie gets this. She introduced a bill in the previous parliament to cap V-C pay at the $435,000 the commonwealth Treasurer makes. There were 400-plus reader comments sent to The Australian on Natasha Bita's Friday coverage of the 10 NSW public universities' annual reports, and what V-Cs were paid kept coming up. Other V-Cs should be pleased Scott was top of the pay pops – his $150,000 pay rise is a sure-fire ire attractor. Not all had huge hikes. University of NSW V-C Attila Brungs made only $700 more on 2023, leaving him to subsist on $1.15m. But in 2024, every V-C in the state made more than the Prime Minister's $607,000 base pay. The University Chancellors Council ignores the comparison to Albanese's wage in its submission to the Senate committee that was considering Lambie's bill, instead offering unconvincing justifications for why the V-C pay packets they approve should not be capped. They argued, 'caps fail to account for university size and complexity'. But the way university councils set V-C pay do not either. Last year, Deborah Terry was paid $1.158m to run the huge and complex University of Queensland, which had $2.83bn in revenue. Up the road, Helen Bartlett received $935,000 to lead the University of the Sunshine Coast, a challenger brand with $435m in income. Plus, the chancellors claimed that setting ceilings on pay would discourage global top talent. The problem is Australia already pays a premium. The president of Harvard University had a total package of $US1.5m last year but will take a 25 per cent pay cut next month due to tough Trump times. According to the QS global university rankings, Harvard is consistently in the world's top-five institutions, while the University of Sydney was 61st this year. University of Queensland vice-chancellor Deborah Terry. Picture: John Gass/NCA NewsWire The chancellors add that they were already on to pay, working on remuneration codes, but they know the jig is up. 'We are committed to restoring public trust and engagement with our universities,' their submission states. It is so far lost that Education Minister Jason Clare has a committee working on improving university management, including executive pay. So lost that V-C income is now a proxy for community distrust of university leaderships. They could all collectively cut their pay by half and stay on the hook of public suspicion. There are five reasons it came to this. One is apparent management indifference to student welfare, especially for victims of sexual harassment and assault that attracted so much community attention that Clare set up a national ombudsman to assist victims when university managements apparently would not. It is not just students who need help. Last week the Australian National University released a scathing report on decades of nepotism, bullying and ill-treatment of staff as well as students. Another is the underpayment of staff at universities across the country, mainly, but not always due to incompetence. The Fair Work Ombudsman has intervened repeatedly, including in the courts, to ensure universities pay people correctly. It still has a matter involving the University of NSW, which mentions in its annual report a $78m provision for current employees that includes underpayments. A third is the apparent inability of some universities – notably the universities of Sydney and Melbourne – to protect Jewish students, indeed some staff, from harassment during Gaza protests last year. There is also the failure of universities to assure the community that they are not ignoring the interests of local students by enrolling enormous numbers of internationals. The University of Sydney earned $1.6bn in international student fees in 2024 – 40 per cent of total revenue. Last year, 46 per cent of University of Melbourne students were from overseas. Both of them, and many more universities, need to do a way better job at explaining the real benefits of international education for the country. At the height of the phony argument during the election that internationals were to blame for housing costs, university lobbies complained about the revenue they would lose from enrolment caps. Then there is the way we perceive universities. For decades, V-Cs pitched them as a national resource, but now they can appear as giant corporations, focused on their own, not community interests. V-Cs with huge pay packets and grand digs do not help. The University of Melbourne bought a $7.1m Parkville mansion that former V-C Duncan Maskell lived in (it is now for sale). One of the reasons Scott is noticed for his plutocratic pay is Maskell, the previous top earner, has left. The University of Melbourne does not name the staffer who received a total package worth between $1,575,000 and $1,589,999, which suggests embarrassment at the size of the pay packet. 'I don't strike many people who are horrified by success, whether it's in business or on the sporting field or in the arts,' said economist (and assistant Treasury Minister) Andrew Leigh recently on the Joe Walker policy podcast. 'But in terms of Australian egalitarianism, I think there is that notion that being successful doesn't cause us to put you up on a pedestal. We are a country that doesn't stand up when the Prime Minister enters the room.' We certainly don't give V-Cs standing ovations, and won't while universities don't protect their staff and students and appear aloof to the way they are seen in the community. Big pay packets, regardless of apparent performance, will ensure we stay seated. Certainly, universities publish key performance indicators, but they are generally aspirational. Scott is not going to get sacked if staff and student responses decline on his university's surveys of satisfaction. But if the V-Cs are serious about 'restoring public trust and engagement' this year could be the last of ever-increasing pay for V-Cs, and their senior staff. Clare's committee could firmly suggest V-Cs link pay to public key performance indicators that cover what universities are supposed to do for students. Scores at faculty level on the national satisfaction surveys, lower attrition rates, a major – strike that – huge investment in new courses and teaching technology, would be a start, and competitive information on smaller classes would be a winner. Leigh is right, Australians don't object to rewards for success but it has to be earned and seen to be.
