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

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

"Somebody reached out to him pretending to be a woman, and they started a conversation," his mom, Pauline Stuart, instructed CNN, preventing back tears as she described what happened to her son days after she and Ryan had completed visiting several colleges he was contemplating attending after graduating high school.

The online conversation shortly grew intimate, after which turned felony.

The scammer -- posing as a younger girl -- sent Ryan a nude photograph after which asked 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 send it to Ryan's family and buddies.

The San Jose, California, teen advised the cybercriminal he could not pay the complete amount, 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 saved demanding more and more and putting numerous continued strain on him."

At the time, Stuart knew none of what her son was experiencing. She realized the main points after regulation enforcement investigators reconstructed the occasions leading up to his dying.

She had mentioned goodnight to Ryan at 10 p.m., and described him as her normally comfortable 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, actually thought in that time that there wasn't a method to get by if these photos were truly posted on-line," Pauline said. "His observe confirmed he was absolutely terrified. No youngster should must 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 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 youngster 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 specifically targets youngsters -- it's one of many extra deeper violations of belief I believe in society," says FBI Supervisory Particular Agent Dan Costin, who leads a team of investigators working to counter crimes against children.

In response to Costin, most 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 mentioned, to help establish and arrest perpetrators who're targeting youngsters online.

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

"The embarrassment piece of that is probably one of the bigger hurdles that the victims have to overcome," said Costin. "It can be quite a bit, particularly in that second."

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

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

"Teen brains are nonetheless growing," said Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medication at Mass Normal in Boston. "So when one thing catastrophic occurs, like a personal image is released to folks on-line, it's laborious for them to look past that moment and perceive that in the huge scheme of things they're going to have the ability to get by means of this."

Hadland mentioned there are steps parents can take to help safeguard their kids from online harm.

"The most important factor that a dad or mum should do with their teen is try to perceive what they're doing on-line," she said. "You need to know after they're going online, who they're interacting with, what platforms they're utilizing. Are they being approached by those who they do not know, are they experiencing stress to share info or photos?"

Hadland stated it's also critical that parents particularly warn teenagers of scams like sextortion, without shaming them.

"You wish to make it clear that they'll talk to you if they have executed one thing, or they really feel like they've made a mistake," he mentioned.

Ryan's mother agrees.

"You want to speak to your kids because we have to make them conscious of it," Stuart mentioned.

Nonetheless 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 folks have a look at themselves within the mirror understanding that $150 is extra necessary than a baby's life?" she says. "There is no other word but 'evil' for me that they care far more about money than a child's life. I don't need anybody else to undergo what we did."