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

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

"Someone reached out to him pretending to be a lady, they usually began a conversation," his mother, Pauline Stuart, advised CNN, fighting back tears as she described what occurred to her son days after she and Ryan had completed visiting several schools he was considering attending after graduating high school.

The net dialog quickly grew intimate, after which turned prison.

The scammer -- posing as a younger lady -- sent Ryan a nude photograph and then requested Ryan to share an specific image of himself in return. Immediately after Ryan shared an intimate photo of his personal, 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 told the cybercriminal he could not pay the full quantity, and the demand was finally lowered to a fraction of the original determine -- $150. But after paying the scammers from his college savings, Stuart said, "They kept demanding more and more 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 law enforcement investigators reconstructed the occasions leading as much as his demise.

She had said goodnight to Ryan at 10 p.m., and described him as her often completely satisfied 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 family.

"He really, truly thought in that point that there wasn't a approach to get by if these photos were truly posted on-line," Pauline mentioned. "His notice confirmed he was absolutely terrified. No child 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 marketing campaign to warn mother and father from coast to coast.

The bureau says there were 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 additionally constitutes a serious crime.

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

"To be a legal that particularly targets kids -- it's one of the more deeper violations of belief I feel in society," says FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dan Costin, who leads a team of investigators working to counter crimes in opposition to 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 legislation enforcement counterparts all over the world, Costin mentioned, to help establish and arrest perpetrators who are concentrating on children online.

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

"The embarrassment piece of that is most likely one of the greater hurdles that the victims have to overcome," mentioned Costin. "It can be a lot, especially in that moment."

But investigators urge victims to quickly contact law enforcement, either online or at their local FBI subject office.

Medical experts say there's a key cause why young males are especially susceptible to sextortion-related scams.

"Teen brains are nonetheless growing," said Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medicine at Mass Normal in Boston. "So when one thing catastrophic occurs, like a private image is launched to people online, it's onerous for them to look past that second and understand that in the big scheme of issues they will have the ability to get by this."

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

"An important factor that a mother or father should do with their teen is try to perceive what they're doing on-line," she mentioned. "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 that they do not know, are they experiencing stress to share data or photos?"

Hadland stated it's also vital that folks particularly warn teens of scams like sextortion, with out shaming them.

"You want to make it clear that they can discuss to you if they have accomplished something, or they feel like they've made a mistake," he mentioned.

Ryan's mom agrees.

"It's essential discuss to your kids as a result of we need to make them conscious of it," Stuart stated.

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

"How could these folks have a look at themselves within the mirror understanding that $150 is more necessary than a child's life?" she says. "There is not any other word but 'evil' for me that they care way more about money than a baby's life. I don't need anyone else to go through what we did."