A 17-year-old boy died by suicide hours after being scammed. The FBI says it’s part of a troubling enhance in ‘sextortion’ cases.

Within hours, the 17-year-old, straight-A pupil and Boy Scout had died by suicide.

"Any individual reached out to him pretending to be a lady, and so they started a dialog," his mom, Pauline Stuart, advised CNN, preventing again tears as she described what happened to her son days after she and Ryan had finished visiting several faculties he was considering attending after graduating highschool.

The online dialog shortly grew intimate, after which turned prison.

The scammer -- posing as a young woman -- despatched Ryan a nude photo after which requested Ryan to share an specific image of himself in return. Instantly after Ryan shared an intimate photo of his own, the cybercriminal demanded $5,000, threatening to make the picture public and ship it to Ryan's household and associates.

The San Jose, California, teen informed the cybercriminal he could not pay the full quantity, and the demand was in the end lowered to a fraction of the unique determine -- $150. But after paying the scammers from his faculty financial savings, Stuart mentioned, "They kept demanding increasingly and putting plenty of continued strain on him."

At the time, Stuart knew none of what her son was experiencing. She discovered the small print after legislation enforcement investigators reconstructed the events leading as much as his dying.

She had stated goodnight to Ryan at 10 p.m., and described him as her normally glad son. By 2 a.m., he had been scammed, and brought his life. Ryan left behind a suicide observe describing how embarrassed he was for himself and the family.

"He really, actually thought in that point that there wasn't a solution to get by if those pictures have been actually posted online," Pauline mentioned. "His observe showed he was completely terrified. No little one should have to be that scared."

Law enforcement calls the scam "sextortion," and investigators have seen an explosion in complaints from victims main the FBI to ramp up a marketing campaign to warn dad and mom from coast to coast.

The bureau says there have been over 18,000 sextortion-related complaints in 2021, with losses in extra of $13 million. The FBI says the usage of child pornography by criminals to lure suspects additionally constitutes a serious crime.

The investigation into Last's case is ongoing, Stuart and the FBI tell CNN.

"To be a felony that particularly targets youngsters -- it is one of many extra deeper violations of belief I think in society," says FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dan Costin, who leads a crew of investigators working to counter crimes in opposition to kids.

In keeping with Costin, many of the sextortion scams reported to the FBI are decided to be from criminals on the African continent and in Southeast Asia. Federal investigators are working with their law enforcement counterparts around the globe, Costin said, to assist identify and arrest perpetrators who're targeting kids on-line.

One challenge for the FBI: many victims of sextortion don't report the incidents to law enforcement.

"The embarrassment piece of this is probably one of many larger hurdles that the victims have to beat," said Costin. "It can be loads, especially in that second."

But investigators urge victims to quickly contact law enforcement, both on-line or at their local FBI area workplace.

Medical specialists say there is a key cause why younger males are particularly weak to sextortion-related scams.

"Teen brains are nonetheless developing," said Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medicine at Mass Normal in Boston. "So when something catastrophic occurs, like a personal picture is launched to folks online, it is onerous for them to look previous that moment and perceive that in the large scheme of things they'll be able to get by this."

Hadland mentioned there are steps mother and father can take to help safeguard their kids from on-line harm.

"The most important factor that a mum or dad should do with their teen is try to understand what they're doing on-line," she mentioned. "You wish to know after they're going online, who they're interacting with, what platforms they're utilizing. Are they being approached by people who they don't know, are they experiencing stress to share data or pictures?"

Hadland stated it is also critical that parents specifically warn teens of scams like sextortion, without shaming them.

"You need to make it clear that they will talk to you if they've achieved something, or they feel like they've made a mistake," he mentioned.

Ryan's mom agrees.

"You should speak to your youngsters as a result of we have to make them conscious of it," Stuart said.

Still grieving the loss of her son, she is channeling her household's pain into motion, and honoring Ryan by talking out and telling his story. She hopes that doing so will assist save lives.

"How might these individuals have a look at themselves in the mirror figuring out that $150 is extra vital than a toddler's life?" she says. "There is not any other word but 'evil' for me that they care much more about money than a baby's life. I do not need anyone else to go through what we did."