HAMILTON, Michigan — A new scam is targeting children through Google Meet. The superintendent of Hamilton Community Schools said the Allegan County Sheriff's Office contacted the district about the scam involving one of their students.
David Tebo, the superintendent, said the scam involves sending the child a link to join a Google Meeting. Once there, the scammer coerces the child to expose themselves, then uses a recording of the meeting to request money.
"Then, the extortion came in a follow up email," said Tebo, "That said, 'Hey, we've got pictures of you exposing yourself. If you don't send us X amount of money, we're going to send these pictures to your parents, to your pastor, to your friends, we're gonna post on social media.'"
Allegan County Sheriff's Office confirmed they are aware of the situation and actively investigating. Tebo said at least one other parent in the district has felt their child fall victim to the scam, but the the nature of the scam could happen anywhere.
"We have had to, for all the right reasons, put Wi-Fi hotspots and put in computers in homes across our district and across the state of Michigan," said Tebo, "This is an issue that we should all be aware of, because kids have devices in their homes that they didn't have before."
Tebo said the scam appears to be targeting mostly male students.
Neighboring school districts have sent letters home to parents, warning them of this scam. Jenison Public Schools was one of those districts. However, High School Principal Brandon Graham said they have no known incidents. He said it was important to spread the warning of the scam, especially with so many students using platforms like Google Meet for classwork.
"Children are really innocent," said Graham, "They want to jump into those meetings and engage with their teachers and their fellow students. It's just something that we wanted to make sure that the parents were very clear that this was something to watch out for."
Both school leaders said they hope parents have a conversation with their student about the dangers of the internet, online safety, and how to avoid sexual exploitation online.
"We told our students and our parents yesterday, to make sure to never enter a link from an unrecognizable person," said Graham, "In this certain scam, that we are alerting our families tell students to never expose yourself on camera. Lastly, if you get a request to join a meeting, or there's a link that doesn't look right, report it to a parent, report it to the school, so we can investigate and make sure that our kids are staying safe."
Hamilton Community Schools uses Google platforms for many of its virtual learning, but Zoom for video. Still, Tebo said it's important children know it is not safe to engage with unknown people on the internet, even if it is difficult to talk about.
"I want parents and kids to know that this is real, that it's happening, it can happen to you," said Tebo, "When something bad happens, everybody says, 'Well, we never thought it would happen to me.' It's going to happen to anybody. Be aware, and parents, please have difficult conversations with your kids."
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