Federal jury convicts North Carolina man who catfished a minor for child sexual abuse material

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal jury convicted a North Carolina man yesterday on charges of coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity and receipt of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, between Feb. 17 and March 3, 2023, Matthew Thomas Becker, 23, of Boone, North Carolina, exchanged sexual messages and sexually explicit images and videos with a 14-year-old victim on X (formerly Twitter). After exchanging only six messages, Becker, posing as a teenage girl, began sending the victim sexually explicit images and videos. Becker sold to the victim access to a folder on a cloud-based file sharing platform that Becker claimed contained “18 pics and 2 vids” of the female he pretended to be.

On Feb. 20, 2023, Becker asked the victim how old he was and the victim told Becker he was 15. Becker then negotiated to pay the victim to send Becker a sexually explicit video, which he did. On March 3, 2023, Becker convinced the victim to send again a sexually explicit video because his previous X account had been suspended.

Becker faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison when sentenced on Dec. 16. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force investigated this case. The FBI’s Charlotte Office provided substantial assistance in the investigation of this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren Halper and Laura D. Withers are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:26-cr-21.