COLORADO (KOAA) — The FBI is warning local law enforcement and schools about a disturbing trend that’s sweeping the nation and targeting our kids. A special agent who tracks what the FBI calls an online predator trend that started as a gang, and is now nearly impossible to stop.
We’ve heard of being targeted online, but this trend aiming to control kids is sometimes run by groups, sometimes by individuals. But, the FBI says they all have the intent of leading kids to hurt themselves or others, and they say the victims are most often young girls.
"Unfortunately, we have cases now in every FBI field office across the country, and that's just what we know about. I speculate that there are many, many thousands more," said Supervisory Special Agent Ash Thorne.
News5 went to the FBI headquarters in Denver to ask Thorne more about how the bureau is tracking down people trying to ruin kids' and vulnerable adults’ lives. Thorne oversees the FBI’s domestic terrorism program, and he says this activity is just that, terrorizing.
He says they are manipulating girls and coercing them to send sexually explicit images and videos, and then once the criminal actor has those videos, they will then use that to blackmail the victim even further to continue that activity.
"So, when a kid tries to get out or says no, that kind of retaliation goes out to their friends and there's a great fear, right? Because ultimately, these criminal actors gain status within these communities by the sheer number of victims that they have. Ultimately, we've seen children and at-risk individuals commit suicide out of fear," said Thorne.
One of the groups behind this activity is called 764.
Thorne said it began as an online nihilistic gang that initiates members by asking them to get close with a child and, over time, gain their trust, pull them away from their friends and family and then get them to do things like sending them sexually explicit photos, cutting themselves, and in some cases, killing their pets.
"That's just one of many names that these individuals associate with. You mentioned the nihilistic ideology. It's the belief that life has no purpose. And these people have gravitated towards what originally began as a neo-Nazi and satanist ideology within 764 is now evolved into this chaos for the sense of, chaos, right? It's nihilistic. Life has no purpose, and if life has no purpose, violence is acceptable," says Thorne in explaining the members' thinking.
There are now thousands of individuals who are contacting kids, mostly girls as young as 10, he said, and it's not just happening on the dark web, but in chats within the games they play, on social media, and even by email.
What makes it difficult to stop this type of crime is that the criminals are often overseas, using VPN technology to spoof where they are actually operating from, Thorne said.
"There's a lot of things we can do about it. Number one is, we're training our folks internally on how to handle these problems and identify these types of cases. Secondly, we're working very closely with our federal, state, and local partners on these cases, and educating them on what to look for and how to handle these types of cases. We're also reaching out to schools, school resource officers, teachers and parents, so that they can identify any type of indication that someone they know or one of their children or one of their students is being victimized," he said.
Thorne acknowledges it falls on parents and guardians to not only set parental controls, but to know who their children are talking to and look for behaviors like withdrawing from normal activities, mood changes, obsession with being online at certain times to meet their friend, and self-harm.
News5 reached out to a number of school districts and law enforcement in our area and none say they’ve had training on the effects of 764.
If you believe your child or someone you know could be a victim, the FBI encourages you to reach out to their hotline at 1-800-CALL-FBI. Thorne says even if they have committed crimes, they have been victimized and are in need of support.
If you or someone you know is considering hurting themselves, call the National Suicide Hotline at 988.
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