Overview
- The FBI issued a public service announcement on Tuesday, Aug. 11 that warned criminals are breaking into social media and personal accounts to steal non‑consensual intimate images and videos.
- Attackers use breached passwords and PIN lists, repeated login attempts, phishing pages, and fake customer‑service texts that trick victims into giving verification codes or resetting passwords.
- Stolen images are often posted or sold on criminal marketplaces with victims’ names, phone numbers and social handles, which fuels harassment, doxxing and sextortion.
- The FBI urged concrete steps for prevention and recovery, including using unique passwords and a password manager, enabling strong multi‑factor authentication such as passkeys or hardware keys, avoiding online storage of sensitive images, preserving evidence and reporting incidents to the NCII portal at ncii.ic3.gov.
- Security experts say the advisory may signal a rise in these crimes and warn they disproportionately harm young people, adding mental‑health risks and the need for platform cooperation and victim support as next priorities.