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The messages, which arrived while a 13-year-old in New Jersey was playing a tactical shooter video game called “Valorant,” came from a player in Virginia who said he worked for a U.S. intelligence agency and wanted the teen to disrobe on a video platform called Discord.

“I will give rl [real life] one more chance if we play strip,” the man said in one February message, threatening suicide unless the teen stripped on camera while gaming, according to court documents. The man also sent $500 through a cash transfer app to entice the minor, the FBI said.

After the New Jersey family contacted authorities, FBI agents discovered that Brett Janes, 26, who worked as a U.S. intelligence contractor, was behind Discord messages sent to teens from the username “revision#3409.” Janes pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., to child sexual exploitation and receipt of child pornography. He faces a minimum of 15 years in federal prison.

The case shows how some tech-savvy users target minors, build a rapport and manipulate them into sending explicit images and videos on social media platforms. Video game aficionados gravitate to Discord, a live-streaming app with voice and video chat functions, to communicate with one another in real time while playing multiplayer games. Janes would show an official ID badge while chatting with teens interested in tactical shooting games, according to the FBI, in what experts on online sex crimes called a show of authority meant to impress or intimidate them.

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