FBI Seeks Minnesota Victims Of Convicted Child Predator
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The FBI wants to hear from Minnesota victims of an international sextortion case.
They say 350 girls in the U.S., Canada and the UK were targeted online by a convicted predator.
Lucas Chansler, 31, gained the trust of teenage girls and then used online threats to get them to send him graphic images.
The FBI says some of Chansler's 350 victims lived in Minnesota.
Chansler was convicted on nine counts of producing child pornography. He will serve 105 years in federal prison.
The FBI wants to know if there are other victims out there.
For three years, investigators say Chansler, of St. Johns, Florida, used the internet to first gain the trust of girls under 18.
"After gaining their trust, he would record them in various stages of being compromised and then he would insist that they provide additional images even more graphic to him," said FBI chief division council Kyle Loven.
If they didn't comply, Chansler threatened to post the pictures and video he had online.
"He would specifically prey up on young girls between the ages of 13 to 18, because as he told investigators in Florida adult women were too smart to fall for this scheme," Loven said.
The FBI says an alert parent called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The group worked with the FBI to identify Chansler.
A search of his property turned up 80,000 images of child pornography.
"There were victims in Minnesota who were identified," Loven said.
Now the FBI is wondering if there are more victims in Minnesota.
Investigators say Chansler used more than 135 screennames online and on social media sites.
The most commonly used identities Chansler used on AIM and Stickam were:
- argon1049
- poopers2212
- vhugh20191
- CaptainObvious
- anon
- Cameroon
- corpum15
- quinlorn1015 and quinlorn1039
- sk8er4life2021
- tyler
- VictorHugo
BCA Internet Crimes Against Children coordinator Karina Hedinger says parents should have daily conversations with their kids about the time they spend on the internet.
"It's all about talking about what they're doing and who they're talking to," she said.
The BCA says parents should talk to their kids about sharing too much on the internet and make sure kids know to guard personal information.
Parents can also find software that helps track your child's movement on the internet.
If you believe your child had contact with Chansler, contact the FBI.
Cases like this one are rare, where an online predator was able to victimize teen girls for three years.
Still, investigators say sextortion is happening more often.
