An elderly Tennessee woman is accused of sexually blackmailing a Minnesota teenage boy, authorities say.
According to reports, the Anoka County Sheriff's Office was notified on Sept. 30, 2022, of a financial sextortion scheme involving a 17-year-old boy from Linwood Township.
The woman allegedly threatened to share the explicit photos with her friends and family if he did not pay her money.
The victim, now aged 19, allegedly began communicating with an unknown woman over the internet.
KMSP TV The boy reportedly sent nude photos of himself to the woman, who allegedly threatened to show the explicit photos to the boy's friends and family if he did not pay her money.
Authorities said the suspect in the sex blackmail scheme, an older man, demanded that money be sent to the girl's Venmo account, after which she initially sent $1,700.
The alleged victim sent the woman a total of $2,204.54 through September 2022, police said.
Authorities identified 70-year-old Stephanie Godby as the suspect in the sexual assault case.
Police linked Godby's date of birth, Social Security number, phone number and address to a Venmo account that received payments from the boy, according to the report.
Police have yet to locate Godby.
Godby, of Dandridge, Tennessee, was charged in absentia with one count of extortion and one count of theft by deception.
Law enforcement officials said there may have been other victims of sextortion: Records cited in the subpoena showed Godby's Venmo account had received similar payments from people across the country.
One payment sent to Godby's Venmo account contained the message, “Leave my husband alone forever. This is all I'm giving you,” according to the records.
Detectives are still investigating the alleged sextortion scam and are trying to gather additional information about her bank accounts and phone records.
Police did not say how the alleged victim and Godby first met.
of FBI Financial sextortion is defined as “when an offender poses as someone else online and coerces a victim into taking and sending sexually explicit photos or videos of themselves, then immediately demands payment or threatens to expose the photos to the victim's family and friends.”
According to FBI DataVictims of financial sextortion are usually males between the ages of 14 and 17.
From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security Investigations received more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors. The sextortion schemes involved at least 12,600 victims, most of them juveniles, and led to at least 20 suicides.
As The Blaze News reported in August, a young Pennsylvania man believed he had met a woman online and allegedly sent her sexually explicit photos. However, the recipients of the photos were reportedly two Nigerian men who were financially sextorting the alleged victim, who committed suicide because she did not have enough money to meet the blackmail demands.
The Blaze News previously reported on a 16-year-old boy from Mississippi who committed suicide in 2023 after being tricked into a sextortion scam.
In 2022, a 17-year-old boy in Michigan committed suicide after becoming the victim of a sex blackmail scheme orchestrated by three Nigerian men.
South Carolina State Rep. Brandon Guffey (R-S.C.) lost his 17-year-old son, Gavin Guffey. Suicide in 2022 It's for a sex blackmail plot.
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