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

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

"Somebody reached out to him pretending to be a girl, they usually started a dialog," his mother, Pauline Stuart, instructed CNN, fighting back 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 highschool.

The web conversation quickly grew intimate, after which turned legal.

The scammer -- posing as a younger lady -- sent Ryan a nude picture after which requested Ryan to share an explicit image of himself in return. Instantly after Ryan shared an intimate photograph of his own, the cybercriminal demanded $5,000, threatening to make the photograph public and ship it to Ryan's family and friends.

The San Jose, California, teen told the cybercriminal he couldn't pay the full quantity, and the demand was ultimately lowered to a fraction of the unique determine -- $150. However after paying the scammers from his faculty financial savings, Stuart said, "They saved demanding increasingly more and putting a number of continued stress on him."

On the time, Stuart knew none of what her son was experiencing. She realized the main points after law enforcement investigators reconstructed the occasions leading up to his loss of life.

She had mentioned goodnight to Ryan at 10 p.m., and described him as her usually completely happy 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 family.

"He really, truly thought in that point that there wasn't a way to get by if these photos were truly posted online," Pauline stated. "His observe showed he was completely terrified. No baby should must be that scared."

Regulation 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 have been over 18,000 sextortion-related complaints in 2021, with losses in excess of $13 million. The FBI says the use 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 specifically targets children -- it is one of many more deeper violations of belief I believe in society," says FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dan Costin, who leads a team of investigators working to counter crimes towards youngsters.

In response to Costin, many 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 regulation enforcement counterparts world wide, Costin stated, 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 beat," mentioned Costin. "It may be so much, especially in that moment."

But investigators urge victims to shortly contact regulation enforcement, either on-line or at their local FBI subject office.

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

"Teen brains are still creating," mentioned Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medication at Mass Basic in Boston. "So when one thing catastrophic occurs, like a private picture is launched to individuals on-line, it is exhausting for them to look previous that second and perceive that within the large scheme of things they're going to be capable of get by this."

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

"The most important factor that a guardian should do with their teen is try to understand what they're doing online," she stated. "You need to know once they're going online, who they're interacting with, what platforms they're using. Are they being approached by people who they don't know, are they experiencing pressure to share data or images?"

Hadland said it is also essential that folks particularly warn teens of scams like sextortion, without shaming them.

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

Ryan's mom agrees.

"It's essential discuss to your kids because we have to make them aware of it," Stuart mentioned.

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

"How might these individuals take a look at themselves in the mirror knowing that $150 is extra vital than a baby's life?" she says. "There is no different phrase however 'evil' for me that they care much more about cash than a child's life. I do not need anyone else to undergo what we did."