NCAA and FBI to partner up to help athletes avoid being sexually exploited online

By Dana O’Neil, CNN

(CNN) — The NCAA on Monday will announce a collaboration with the FBI designed to educate college athletes on how to confront, prevent and respond to sexual exploitation on the internet, sources familiar with the announcement told CNN Sports.

A growing number of college athletes have been subjected to what’s commonly referred to as “sextortion,’’ with hackers accessing their phone data to post or even sell images to third parties online, or blackmail athletes to ensure compromising images aren’t posted.

The FBI said it fields more than 3,000 tips a day about victims of cyber sexual exploitation. While the agency cannot quantify how many of those victims are college athletes, officials believe the combination of social media exposure and NIL funding make college athletes especially vulnerable.

“We have flagged athletes as a growing target population,’’ said Taushiana Bright, the FBI’s cyber division section chief.

“Athletes have large social media followings, expended further by NIL activities that not only increases the exposure for targeting, it increases the leverage vendors believe they hold to exposure them. There is a pressure to protect the clean image of their school, team and themselves.’’

Typically, criminal actors access intimate images in one of three ways:

• Password and PIN targeting: Using curated lists or data leaks to access athletes’ social media accounts.
• Social media customer service impersonation: Sending text messages claiming an account has been disabled and prompting a password via a generated code.
• Phishing: Creating look-alike domains that emulate social media customer support are created to fool victims into resets.

Regardless of the method, the result is the same: Victims are either pressured into paying money to stop the publication of private images, or the images are posted. The FBI estimates some $44 million was spent in 2025 alone to prevent cyber sexual exploitation.

The humiliation and fear leave many victims feeling alone and unsure of where to go.

Working to find ways to supply more direct support and resources, the FBI reached out to the NCAA, hoping it could use both its membership and network of available tools for athletes to help. The two organizations regularly intersect over such issues as gambling and various investigations, which make for a natural partnership.

This collaboration, however, is strictly meant to offer support and guidance and not serve as an investigative arm.

The goal is to have the NCAA create awareness, educate athletes on how to protect themselves and their information and to serve as liaison to help connect victims to available resources.

The FBI field offices, for example, offer victim advocates to assist those who have been exploited, and organizations such as the National Center for Victims of Internet and Cyber Exploitation (NCVIC) not only provide support, but have tools to help victims remove images from the internet.

Just how easy such a crime is to commit came to light a year ago when a former Michigan football staffer was arrested and accused of stealing more than 3,000 images and videos of athletes. Matt Weiss is alleged to have hacked into the accounts of athletes – mostly women – from more than 100 universities.

Last month a judge denied Weiss’ motion to dismiss most of the charges.

CORRECTION: A quote in this story was attributed to the wrong individual and has been updated to reflect the proper attribution.

The-CNN-Wire
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