Overview
- The FBI and the NCAA announced Monday a joint initiative to educate student‑athletes about online sexual exploitation and to act as campus liaisons to victim services.
- Officials said the program focuses on prevention and victim support rather than serving as a joint investigative unit.
- Federal agents identified common tactics used by offenders, including phishing links, theft of passwords or PINs, and impersonation of social‑media customer‑service messages to gain account access.
- The FBI is directing athletes not to pay extortion demands, to preserve screenshots and messages as evidence, and to report incidents to local FBI field offices or online so victim advocates can assist and groups like NCVIC can work to remove images.
- Organizers tied the risk to larger public profiles and NIL activity, warned that survivors often hesitate to report because of reputational and athletic consequences, and noted that officials have not released aggregate counts of affected athletes while the outreach rolls out.