High school student posed as adult film star in massive sextortion scheme — and faces hundreds of charges, police say

A high school student is accused of a massive sextortion scheme that allegedly involved coercing underage victims to film themselves having sex.

Investigators say that 18-year-old Zachariah Abraham Meyers posed as an attractive adult film star from the Netherlands on social media platforms that included Snapchat and TikTok.

One of the victims told police they were coerced to film themselves having sex with two separate men. Ten males were filmed on school grounds.

Meyers is a senior at Peters Township High School in Pennsylvania.

After luring the underage victims to communicate with him online, Meyers then tricked them into sharing sexually explicit videos and photos with him, according to investigators.

In two cases, he demanded $500 from the victims after threatening to release the embarrassing material, according to a criminal complaint. One of those victims refused the extortion threat, and Meyers allegedly responded by sending a naked photo of the victim to the victim's sister on Instagram.

Thirty underage boys were questioned in the investigation, and police said they identified at least 21 victims, of whom 14 sent pornographic images to Meyers. The victims range in age from 14 years old to 17 years old.

He is also alleged to have posed as a man from Arizona and an unidentified woman.

One of the victims told police they were coerced to film themselves having sex with two separate men. Ten males were filmed on school grounds.

Meyers was arrested and booked into the Washington County Jail in February and was charged with 304 felony counts that included:

• Trafficking in minors;
• Sexual extortion;
• Unlawful contact with a minor;
• Distribution of child sexual abuse material; and
• Criminal use of communication facility.

Investigators said there could be additional charges as they continued to analyze the suspect's devices.

RELATED: Two Nigerian brothers admit to sextortion scam with more than 100 victims, including Michigan teen who committed suicide

"I'm shocked!" said Jason Broveck, a parent of a student at the same high school. "I mean, it's a lot of information to take in at once. It's overwhelming."

Police warned parents that they should keep their children off devices with access to online strangers or carefully monitor any online access children have.

Peters Township has about 23K residents and is located near the southwestern border of Pennsylvania.

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