After a student newspaper at Rangeview High School in Aurora reported on a sextortion scheme victimizing students across the city, Aurora police confirmed Monday an investigation is underway into the incident. 

The Rangeview Raider Review, run by students at Rangeview High School, reported Wednesday that a criminal revenge-porn scandal involving students at Rangeview and other schools in the area was occurring on Instagram.

The incident involved multiple Instagram accounts posting explicit photos of an estimated 100 victims across Aurora, according to the Rangeview Raiders Review report. 

On Monday, the Aurora Police Department announced in a news release that it’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit is investigating numerous reports of “sextortion” targeting Aurora students. 

Sextortion is “a form of exploitation where children are blackmailed most often through the threat of publishing an explicit image,” according to the release. 

This can include scammers threatening to post explicit material online unless they get money from a victim or sharing explicit images with others for money, APD said. 

The accounts involved in the scandal have requested between $5 and $25 to remove images, according to the Rangeview Raiders Review. One account charged $10 for addition to their “Close Friends List,” where they would post uncensored photos.

They also offered to pay people through Cash App or Apple Pay to send them illicit images, the Review report says. 

As of the time of the Rangeview Raiders Review’s report, Instagram had not taken any action to remove the posts or accounts despite multiple user reports, they wrote in the story. The suspect account had passed 2,000 followers and continued to grow, they said.

“This is a terrible thing for someone to do, but this is also a testament that you shouldn’t take compromising photos of yourself because you never know if they can use those against you. This is a prime example,” Dean of Students DeLisha Boyd said in the Rangeview Raiders Review report. 

The incident was first reported on Jan. 16 to an Aurora Police Department School Resource Officer, according to the APD release. The Review story published on Jan. 17. 

Since then, students and officials from Rangeview, Smoky Hill, Gateway, Vista Peak, Cherokee Trail and Overland high schools, as well as Aurora Hills and Mrachek middle schools, have reported incidents related to the investigation, the release said.

Six students reported being direct targets of the scheme after the suspect contacted them through Instagram. Other students reported getting invitations to pay for the “Close Friends List,” which allows Instagram users to see an account’s content shared with chosen viewers, of explicit material, police said. 

APD detectives are working with Cherry Creek School District and Aurora Public Schools officials to identify victims and with Meta, Instagram’s parent company, to identify the owners of the profiles. 

In 2014, Colorado passed its first revenge porn laws, and have been strengthening them since 2018, the Rangeview Raiders Review reported. 

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact detectives through Aurora’s non-emergency dispatch line at 303-627-3100 and reference case number AP2024-10276.

Students and officials can also share information anonymously via the Safe2Tell website.