Teenagers are being warned about a social media scam which tries to blackmails them for cash.
Gardaí are investigating a number of incidents where boys were sexually coerced to send explicit photos of themselves, before being blackmailed.
Crime prevention officer, Sergeant Dean Kerins, outlines one case.
"He got a friend request from a complete stranger. That started off innocently, but very, very quickly proceeded to the lady herself in question sending inappropriate and sexual images of herself to the young man."
The sender then looked for images in return. The digital blackmail started immediately all within the space of a hour.
Gardaí say the senders are based in other countries and the images they send are fake. The teenagers are then told the images will be sent to their families and friends, if they don’t hand over money.
"It is a pure scam. It starts with a completely innocent friend request and then progresses very, very quickly. " says Sergeant Kerins
Gardai are urging teenagers to be careful about accepting friend requests from strangers.
