‘It looks so real’: amid rise in financial sextortion, Childline is helping teenagers fight back

Counsellors are receiving an increasing number of calls from young people being blackmailed over faked indecent images

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It was a phone call that has become all too common for Childline counsellors in recent months.

The 17-year-old boy said he was scared and did not know what to do. He had been contacted by a “girl” on social media claiming to be his own age and, after an exchange of messages, had sent her an intimate image. And then the blackmail demands started.