A Tuscaloosa County lawmaker wants to establish strong criminal penalties for scammers who engage in sexual extortion schemes that result in teenage victims taking their own lives.

Rep. Ron Bolton, R-Northport, is sponsoring a bill in response to a crime that often targets adolescents with deadly consequences, especially boys.

The perpetrators contact their victims on social media and use fake identities, typically pretending to be young women.

They convince the victims to send them sexually explicit photos. Then they demand money with threats to post the pictures online or send them to the victims’ family and friends.

The FBI calls the scheme financially motivated sextortion and says it has resulted in an alarming number of suicides.

Bolton’s bill would put sexual extortion in Alaba

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