Sextortion from Scam Compounds

IJM’s Eric Heintz on KK Park and the Global Scamdemic

Sextortion isn’t just happening online — it’s being industrialized inside scam compounds like KK Park in Southeast Asia. Eric Heintz of International Justice Mission joins Stolen to talk with Erin West about IJM’s groundbreaking study linking sextortion of minors to the same criminal networks running pig butchering scams and cryptocurrency fraud.

They expose how satellite imagery and open-source data reveal the terrifying scale of abuse, from forced labor or trafficked workers to children targeted worldwide. This conversation is a wake-up call: Sextortion is not an isolated crime, but part of a global scam machine that demands urgent action.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and other major podcast platforms.

Guest Bio

Eric Heintz is a global analyst for Global Fusion Center International Justice Mission, a global organization that protects people in poverty from violence.

“With this project, they were seeing a big rise in financial sextortion cases involving minors.”

— Eric Heintz, International Justice Mission

Episode Chapters

• 2:01 — Observations and experiences in Thailand

• 5:31 — IJM's mission and Eric’s focus on forced labor in Southeast Asia.

• 8:01 — How scam reports began to surface and the gruesome stories that followed.

• 12:01 — How crypto transactions were traced to scam operations.

• 18:01 — The development of KK Park and its significance.

• 22:01 — Various scam techniques and the experiences of victims.

• 28:01 — Sextortion cases and the related financial crimes.

• 35:01 — The data analysis process and significant findings.

• 42:01 — The need for action and the next steps.

Useful Links

• International Justice Mission

• Press Release: “IJM Uncovers Links Between Child Sextortion and Southeast Asia’s Scam Compounds”

• Report: “A Potential Nexus Between Forced Scamming and the Financially Motivated Sextortion of Children,” IJM, 2025

• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children CyberTipline

  CyberTipline is the nation’s centralized reporting system for the online exploitation of children. The public and electronic service providers can make reports of suspected online enticement of children for sexual acts, child sexual molestation, child sexual abuse material, child sex tourism, child sex trafficking, unsolicited obscene materials sent to a child, misleading domain names, and misleading words or digital images on the internet.

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