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.

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

"Anyone reached out to him pretending to be a girl, and so they started a conversation," his mother, Pauline Stuart, told CNN, combating 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 highschool.

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

The scammer -- posing as a young lady -- despatched Ryan a nude photo after which asked Ryan to share an specific 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 send it to Ryan's household and friends.

The San Jose, California, teen informed the cybercriminal he could not pay the complete quantity, and the demand was finally lowered to a fraction of the original determine -- $150. However after paying the scammers from his school savings, Stuart stated, "They stored demanding more and more and putting a number of continued pressure on him."

On the time, Stuart knew none of what her son was experiencing. She realized the small print after law enforcement investigators reconstructed the occasions main as much as his loss of life.

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

"He actually, really thought in that time that there wasn't a technique to get by if these photos have been truly posted online," Pauline mentioned. "His observe confirmed he was absolutely terrified. No little one ought to must be that scared."

Regulation 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 were over 18,000 sextortion-related complaints in 2021, with losses in excess of $13 million. The FBI says using child pornography by criminals to lure suspects also constitutes a serious crime.

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

"To be a legal that specifically targets youngsters -- it's one of many more deeper violations of belief I believe in society," says FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dan Costin, who leads a group of investigators working to counter crimes against children.

Based on Costin, most of the sextortion scams reported to the FBI are determined to be from criminals on the African continent and in Southeast Asia. Federal investigators are working with their legislation enforcement counterparts around the globe, Costin stated, to help identify and arrest perpetrators who are focusing on youngsters online.

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

"The embarrassment piece of that is probably one of the larger hurdles that the victims have to overcome," mentioned Costin. "It may be quite a bit, especially in that second."

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

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

"Teen brains are nonetheless creating," stated Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent drugs at Mass Basic in Boston. "So when one thing catastrophic occurs, like a personal image is released to people online, it's arduous for them to look previous that second and understand that in the massive scheme of things they're going to have the ability to get by means of this."

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

"An important factor that a guardian should do with their teen is attempt to perceive what they're doing on-line," she stated. "You wish to know after 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 strain to share info or photos?"

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

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

Ryan's mom agrees.

"It's good to talk to your kids because we have to make them conscious of it," Stuart mentioned.

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

"How may these individuals look at themselves in the mirror knowing that $150 is more important than a baby's life?" she says. "There is not any other phrase but 'evil' for me that they care far more about cash than a toddler's life. I do not want anyone else to go through what we did."