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.

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

"Any person reached out to him pretending to be a woman, and so they started a conversation," his mom, Pauline Stuart, told CNN, combating 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 high school.

The net conversation shortly grew intimate, after which turned prison.

The scammer -- posing as a younger girl -- sent Ryan a nude picture after which asked Ryan to share an explicit picture of himself in return. Immediately after Ryan shared an intimate picture of his personal, the cybercriminal demanded $5,000, threatening to make the photo public and send it to Ryan's family and buddies.

The San Jose, California, teen told the cybercriminal he could not pay the complete quantity, and the demand was in the end lowered to a fraction of the original determine -- $150. However after paying the scammers from his college savings, Stuart stated, "They kept demanding more and more and placing a number of continued stress on him."

On the time, Stuart knew none of what her son was experiencing. She learned the details after regulation enforcement investigators reconstructed the occasions main as much as his death.

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

"He actually, actually thought in that time that there wasn't a approach to get by if these footage were actually posted online," Pauline said. "His note confirmed he was completely terrified. No baby should should be that scared."

Legislation enforcement calls the scam "sextortion," and investigators have seen an explosion in complaints from victims leading the FBI to ramp up a marketing campaign to warn mother and father 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 usage of baby pornography by criminals to lure suspects also constitutes a critical 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 trust I believe in society," says FBI Supervisory Particular Agent Dan Costin, who leads a crew of investigators working to counter crimes in opposition to youngsters.

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 legislation enforcement counterparts all over the world, Costin said, to assist identify and arrest perpetrators who're targeting youngsters online.

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

"The embarrassment piece of this is probably one of the greater hurdles that the victims have to beat," stated Costin. "It may be quite a bit, particularly in that moment."

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

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

"Teen brains are nonetheless creating," mentioned Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medication at Mass Basic in Boston. "So when one thing catastrophic happens, like a personal image is released to people on-line, it's laborious for them to look previous that moment and perceive that within the huge scheme of issues they're going to be capable to get through this."

Hadland said there are steps dad and mom can take to help safeguard their youngsters 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 surfing, who they're interacting with, what platforms they're using. Are they being approached by people who they do not know, are they experiencing pressure to share information or pictures?"

Hadland stated it is also crucial that folks specifically warn teenagers of scams like sextortion, without shaming them.

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

Ryan's mom agrees.

"You have to speak to your children because we have to make them conscious of it," Stuart said.

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

"How could these individuals have a look at themselves in the mirror realizing that $150 is extra essential than a baby's life?" she says. "There is not any different phrase but 'evil' for me that they care far more about money than a toddler's life. I don't want anyone else to go through what we did."