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

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

"Any individual reached out to him pretending to be a woman, they usually began a conversation," his mother, Pauline Stuart, advised CNN, combating back tears as she described what happened to her son days after she and Ryan had finished visiting a number of colleges he was contemplating attending after graduating high school.

The net conversation quickly grew intimate, and then turned criminal.

The scammer -- posing as a young lady -- sent Ryan a nude photograph and then asked Ryan to share an express picture of himself in return. Immediately after Ryan shared an intimate picture of his own, the cybercriminal demanded $5,000, threatening to make the photo public and ship it to Ryan's household and associates.

The San Jose, California, teen told the cybercriminal he couldn't pay the complete amount, and the demand was finally lowered to a fraction of the unique figure -- $150. However after paying the scammers from his college savings, Stuart said, "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 learned the details after legislation enforcement investigators reconstructed the events main as much as his death.

She had said goodnight to Ryan at 10 p.m., and described him as her often completely satisfied son. By 2 a.m., he had been scammed, and brought his life. Ryan left behind a suicide word describing how embarrassed he was for himself and the household.

"He really, really thought in that time that there wasn't a strategy to get by if these pictures had been really posted on-line," Pauline stated. "His notice confirmed he was absolutely terrified. No youngster ought to should 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 campaign to warn dad and mom from coast to coast.

The bureau says there were over 18,000 sextortion-related complaints in 2021, with losses in excess of $13 million. The FBI says using youngster pornography by criminals to lure suspects also constitutes a critical crime.

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

"To be a felony that specifically targets youngsters -- it's one of the extra deeper violations of belief I feel in society," says FBI Supervisory Particular Agent Dan Costin, who leads a crew of investigators working to counter crimes in opposition to youngsters.

In response to 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 legislation enforcement counterparts around the globe, Costin said, to help determine and arrest perpetrators who are focusing on children on-line.

One problem for the FBI: many victims of sextortion do not report the incidents to legislation enforcement.

"The embarrassment piece of this is in all probability one of the greater hurdles that the victims have to beat," said Costin. "It can be quite a bit, especially in that moment."

But investigators urge victims to rapidly contact law enforcement, both on-line or at their local FBI subject office.

Medical consultants say there's a key reason why younger males are particularly weak to sextortion-related scams.

"Teen brains are still developing," said Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medicine at Mass Normal in Boston. "So when one thing catastrophic occurs, like a private image is launched to people online, it is hard for them to look past that moment and understand that within the huge scheme of issues they'll be capable to get through this."

Hadland mentioned there are steps parents can take to assist safeguard their children from on-line harm.

"Crucial thing that a mum or dad should do with their teen is try to understand what they're doing on-line," she said. "You wish to know once they're going surfing, who they're interacting with, what platforms they're utilizing. Are they being approached by folks that they don't know, are they experiencing stress to share information or pictures?"

Hadland said it is also vital that parents specifically warn teenagers of scams like sextortion, with out shaming them.

"You need to make it clear that they'll talk to you if they have performed one thing, or they feel like they've made a mistake," he stated.

Ryan's mom agrees.

"It's essential to discuss to your kids as a result of we have to make them conscious of it," Stuart stated.

Still grieving the loss of her son, she is channeling her family's ache 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 take a look at themselves in the mirror figuring out that $150 is extra vital than a toddler's life?" she says. "There isn't any different word but 'evil' for me that they care much more about cash than a child's life. I don't want anybody else to undergo what we did."