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

Within 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 girl, and they started 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 completed visiting several schools he was considering attending after graduating high school.

The web conversation rapidly grew intimate, after which turned criminal.

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

The San Jose, California, teen advised the cybercriminal he could not pay the complete quantity, and the demand was ultimately lowered to a fraction of the original determine -- $150. But after paying the scammers from his school savings, Stuart said, "They stored demanding increasingly and putting lots of continued pressure on him."

At the time, Stuart knew none of what her son was experiencing. She learned the small print after regulation enforcement investigators reconstructed the occasions leading as much as his loss of life.

She had mentioned goodnight to Ryan at 10 p.m., and described him as her normally glad 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 family.

"He really, actually thought in that point that there wasn't a strategy to get by if these footage had been truly posted online," Pauline said. "His notice confirmed he was completely terrified. No baby ought to must 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 were over 18,000 sextortion-related complaints in 2021, with losses in excess of $13 million. The FBI says the use of baby pornography by criminals to lure suspects also constitutes a severe crime.

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

"To be a legal that specifically targets kids -- it is one of many more deeper violations of trust I think in society," says FBI Supervisory Particular Agent Dan Costin, who leads a group of investigators working to counter crimes towards children.

Based on Costin, lots 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 law enforcement counterparts around the world, Costin stated, to help establish and arrest perpetrators who are targeting children online.

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

"The embarrassment piece of that is in all probability one of many bigger hurdles that the victims have to overcome," mentioned Costin. "It may be loads, especially in that second."

But investigators urge victims to quickly contact legislation enforcement, either on-line or at their native FBI discipline office.

Medical consultants say there is a key reason why young males are especially weak to sextortion-related scams.

"Teen brains are still growing," stated Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent drugs at Mass Basic in Boston. "So when one thing catastrophic happens, like a personal picture is launched to folks online, it's hard for them to look previous that moment and understand that in the big scheme of things they'll be capable of get by means of this."

Hadland stated there are steps dad and mom can take to assist safeguard their kids from online hurt.

"The most important thing that a parent ought to do with their teen is try to understand what they're doing online," she said. "You wish to know when they're going surfing, who they're interacting with, what platforms they're using. Are they being approached by those who they don't know, are they experiencing pressure to share information or photos?"

Hadland said it's also crucial that oldsters particularly warn teens of scams like sextortion, without shaming them.

"You need to make it clear that they'll discuss to you if they have accomplished something, or they really feel like they've made a mistake," he stated.

Ryan's mother agrees.

"It's essential to discuss to your youngsters because we have to make them aware 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 help save lives.

"How might these individuals look at themselves within the mirror understanding that $150 is more necessary than a baby's life?" she says. "There is no other word but 'evil' for me that they care much more about cash than a child's life. I do not want anyone else to undergo what we did."