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

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

"Somebody reached out to him pretending to be a lady, and they started a conversation," his mom, Pauline Stuart, told CNN, fighting again tears as she described what happened to her son days after she and Ryan had completed visiting several schools he was considering attending after graduating high school.

The web dialog shortly grew intimate, and then turned prison.

The scammer -- posing as a young lady -- despatched Ryan a nude picture after which requested Ryan to share an explicit image of himself in return. Immediately after Ryan shared an intimate photo of his personal, the cybercriminal demanded $5,000, threatening to make the photo public and send it to Ryan's family and mates.

The San Jose, California, teen informed the cybercriminal he couldn't pay the complete amount, and the demand was finally lowered to a fraction of the unique determine -- $150. However after paying the scammers from his school savings, Stuart mentioned, "They kept demanding more and more and putting plenty of continued stress on him."

At the time, Stuart knew none of what her son was experiencing. She learned the main points after legislation enforcement investigators reconstructed the occasions main up to his death.

She had mentioned goodnight to Ryan at 10 p.m., and described him as her usually comfortable son. By 2 a.m., he had been scammed, and taken his life. Ryan left behind a suicide observe describing how embarrassed he was for himself and the household.

"He really, really thought in that time that there wasn't a solution to get by if those footage had been truly posted online," Pauline mentioned. "His note confirmed he was absolutely terrified. No baby should should be that scared."

Law enforcement calls the rip-off "sextortion," and investigators have seen an explosion in complaints from victims main the FBI to ramp up a campaign to warn parents 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 little one pornography by criminals to lure suspects also constitutes a serious crime.

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

"To be a legal that particularly targets children -- it's one of many more deeper violations of trust I think in society," says FBI Supervisory Particular Agent Dan Costin, who leads a workforce of investigators working to counter crimes in opposition to children.

In accordance with Costin, most of the sextortion scams reported to the FBI are determined to be from criminals on the African continent and in Southeast Asia. Federal investigators are working with their law enforcement counterparts all over the world, Costin mentioned, to assist establish and arrest perpetrators who are concentrating on kids online.

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

"The embarrassment piece of that is most likely one of the bigger hurdles that the victims have to overcome," mentioned Costin. "It can be so much, particularly in that moment."

However investigators urge victims to quickly contact law enforcement, either online or at their native FBI subject office.

Medical experts say there is a key cause why young males are especially susceptible to sextortion-related scams.

"Teen brains are nonetheless developing," stated Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medication at Mass Normal in Boston. "So when one thing catastrophic happens, like a personal picture is launched to people online, it's arduous for them to look past that second and perceive that in the massive scheme of issues they're going to have the ability to get by means of this."

Hadland mentioned there are steps dad and mom can take to help safeguard their youngsters from online hurt.

"A very powerful factor that a father or mother should do with their teen is try to understand what they're doing online," she stated. "You need to know after they're logging on, who they're interacting with, what platforms they're using. Are they being approached by people who they do not know, are they experiencing strain to share info or pictures?"

Hadland said it's also critical that folks particularly warn teenagers of scams like sextortion, with out shaming them.

"You wish to make it clear that they will speak to you if they've achieved one thing, or they feel like they've made a mistake," he stated.

Ryan's mother agrees.

"You should discuss to your children as a result of we need to make them aware of it," Stuart mentioned.

Nonetheless grieving the lack of her son, she is channeling her household's ache into motion, and honoring Ryan by speaking out and telling his story. She hopes that doing so will help save lives.

"How might these folks have a look at themselves in the mirror figuring out that $150 is more necessary than a child's life?" she says. "There's no different word however 'evil' for me that they care rather more about cash than a baby's life. I don't need anybody else to go through what we did."