CARTERVILLE — Carterville police says there is a growing epidemic of phishing scams on social media sites such as Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

According to a post on the police department’s Facebook page, the scam starts with messages stating the sender has photos and personal information of the recipient.

The sender states he or she will release the personal information and or photos unless the recipient provides explicit photos. Unless the recipient has previously posted explicit content, these messages are part of a phishing scam. The sender may make several attempts using multiple usernames.

These messages and the senders need to be deleted and blocked. If the recipient continues to be contacted, police recommend the account be deleted altogether.

Please remember that all social media sites need to have the privacy settings set so they can be accessed by only friends of the user. Utilizing the appropriate privacy settings may prevent this type of phishing.