More than £8,000 has been extorted from residents as young as 14 in the past six months over intimate pictures.

New figures show the alarming rise in so-called sextortion cases, where someone shares images of themselves and is then told to pay up or they will be leaked or sent to friends and family.

In just the past six months, £13,392 has been extorted from across the Argyll and West Dunbartonshire division, with £8,487 of that from across Argyll and Bute.

Amounts ranged from £30 or £40 and as high as thousands of pounds.

The 15 sextortions in that period had nine from Argyll and Bute, with victims ranging from as young as 14 and up to 67.

There were another 25 attempted sextortions where no money was obtained fraudulently, with 18 of the victims in Argyll and Bute.

All the victims were male, with an average age of 26 for the attempted sextortion and 28 for the victims who sent money.

Police are warning this is a national problem and Helensburgh and Lomond are not immune to the rise in such cases.

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Most of the victims meet criminals on social media such as Snapchat, Facebook or Instagram.

They appear to be innocent messages on sites where people - and parents - might feel comfortable.

Officers said the rise in cases might also be linked to more people being willing to report the crimes.

Almost all of the criminals are abroad but police insisted they will still investigate.

Inspector Bart Simonis, in charge of prevention in Argyll and West Dunbartonshire, said: "We are warning about the potential for social media users to fall victim to sextortion scams, with one in particular being prevalent at the moment.

"The scam is typically, but not exclusively, aimed at men between the ages of 18 and 44, by luring them to perform explicit sexual acts over social media, this may be a single photograph or more.

"If they do so, the victim is threatened that if they do not pay a certain sum of money the footage will be posted online or sent to friends and family.

"The simplest way to avoid these scams is to refrain from adding people you don't know regardless of whether you have mutual friends, as this is a tactic used to gain your trust and confidence.

"Police Scotland are dedicated to supporting victims and treating every case seriously."

Police advice is to don't pay, don't delete any correspondance and don't delete accounts. Don't communicate further with the person, and report any indecent images to the host website.

Information officers need for investigating is the Skype ID used, Facebook URL, Western Union or MoneyGram money transfer control number (MTCN) and any photos sent.

Police advice covers how to remove images that have been shared in Google, Twitter, Facebook or Youtube without your consent.

And they urged anyone who has been a victim of sextortion or attempted sextortion to call 101 or report the incident online.

There is support online a dedicated Police Scotland website.