A 17-year-old boy died by suicide hours after being scammed. The FBI says it is a 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 girl, and so they started a dialog," his mother, Pauline Stuart, instructed CNN, combating again tears as she described what occurred to her son days after she and Ryan had completed visiting several colleges he was considering attending after graduating high school.

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

The scammer -- posing as a younger girl -- sent Ryan a nude picture after which requested Ryan to share an express picture of himself in return. Instantly after Ryan shared an intimate photo of his personal, the cybercriminal demanded $5,000, threatening to make the photo public and ship it to Ryan's household and associates.

The San Jose, California, teen advised the cybercriminal he could not pay the total amount, and the demand was in the end lowered to a fraction of the original figure -- $150. But after paying the scammers from his school savings, Stuart said, "They kept demanding more and more and putting lots of continued pressure on him."

On the time, Stuart knew none of what her son was experiencing. She discovered the details after law enforcement investigators reconstructed the events main up to his demise.

She had stated goodnight to Ryan at 10 p.m., and described him as her normally blissful son. By 2 a.m., he had been scammed, and brought his life. Ryan left behind a suicide observe describing how embarrassed he was for himself and the family.

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

Regulation 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 dad and mom 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 use of child pornography by criminals to lure suspects also constitutes a severe crime.

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

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

In accordance 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 regulation enforcement counterparts around the world, Costin said, to assist identify and arrest perpetrators who're targeting youngsters online.

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

"The embarrassment piece of that is most likely one of many greater hurdles that the victims have to beat," said Costin. "It can be a lot, especially in that second."

However investigators urge victims to quickly contact regulation enforcement, both on-line or at their native FBI subject office.

Medical consultants say there's a key cause why younger males are especially vulnerable to sextortion-related scams.

"Teen brains are still developing," mentioned Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent drugs at Mass General in Boston. "So when something catastrophic occurs, like a private picture is released to individuals on-line, it's onerous for them to look previous that moment and understand that within the large scheme of issues they're going to be capable of get by means of this."

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

"Crucial thing that a guardian ought to do with their teen is attempt to perceive what they're doing online," she said. "You need to know once they're logging on, who they're interacting with, what platforms they're utilizing. Are they being approached by those who they don't know, are they experiencing strain to share info or photos?"

Hadland said it is also critical that oldsters specifically warn teenagers of scams like sextortion, with out shaming them.

"You wish to make it clear that they will talk to you if they have done something, or they really feel like they've made a mistake," he stated.

Ryan's mom agrees.

"You might want to discuss to your children as a result of we need to make them aware of it," Stuart said.

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

"How may these people look at themselves in the mirror understanding that $150 is extra necessary than a toddler's life?" she says. "There is no different phrase however 'evil' for me that they care rather more about cash than a toddler's life. I don't want anyone else to go through what we did."