SF supervisor hosts educational workshops as scams targeting teens on the rise

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- In San Francisco's Sunset District, workshops to help the senior community spot online scammers are helping a younger demographic.

"Almost 500 scams last year totaling nearly $7 million in the Sunset District and other Western District of San Francisco, so we have been doing a lot of workshops to address seniors scams but we have realized the youth, teenagers have also being scammed," said Joel Engardio, San Francisco Supervisor.

Supervisor Engardio's office realized these scams are similar, but prey on each demographic's vulnerabilities.

"Scams with seniors are mainly financial - with the teenagers it's more of social, or on social media, or people are being exploited or taken advantage of by adults on social media. It's less of a financial price tag but has a huge emotional price tag," said Supervisor Engardio.

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Tai Morganson is an intern on Engardios's team leading the first workshop to help teens in the district.

"The things that we have noticed teenager value a lot is employment and romance. So, employment scams looks like someone will reach out and will give an insane, too good to be true offer" said Morganson. "This person does not actually exist in real life but they are putting up a persona to get closer to this person - to slowly extract personal details and if its not outright asking for money. Then they can get the teenager to send a picture of themselves - that can be very vulnerable."

The CyberTipline at National Center for Missing and exploited children saw 546,000 cases of online enticement last year. Many of these scams starting with a text message from an unknown number or a message from a stranger on social media.

"So, sextortion is a form of online enticement. And sextortion occurs when a individual, is extorting a child who may have shared nude or sexually explicit images and videos of themselves with this person, and this individual is then blackmailing or extorting this child for either more images for money, or to meet for a sex act," said Hayley Elizondo, program manager for the CyberTipline at National Center for Mission and exploited children.

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According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, boys ages 14 to 17 years old are the most impacted by financial sextortion scams, something that experts say can happen within hours of a scammer making contact.

Experts recommend speaking openly with your teens about this as well as:

"Being very cautious about who you may friend online or with who you may communicate with," said Elizondo. "Another great tip is to keep, accounts, social media accounts on private."

The next teen workshop will be on July 10 from 4-5 p.m. at the Chi Sing Community Center at 3133 Taraval Street in San Francisco.