(NewsNation) — September is suicide awareness month, and this year some are pushing to raise awareness about the growing problem of sextortion that has led to suicides in young men.
According to the FBI, sextortion schemes targeting teenage boys are up significantly, with more than 7,000 incidents reported in just the past year.
Investigators in California told NewsNation they believe shame has around 80% of sextortion victims too embarrassed to come forward, and say 99% of criminals are getting away with their crimes. That makes the scheme lucrative, with investigators suspecting there are multiple rings of criminals involved, likely earning millions of dollars a week.
If you or someone you know needs help, resources or someone to talk to, you can find it at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website or by calling 988. People are available to talk to 24×7.
More than a dozen cases have ended tragically; in some cases, taking young lives in a matter of hours.
Pauline Stuart’s son, 17-year-old Ryan Last, died by suicide last February after an Instagram chat with someone he thought was a teenage girl.
“We lived a very normal life. And it happened to us so we need to make sure that people know it’s just not that kid, it could be any kid,” Stuart said.
Before long, Last’s Instagram chat included an exchange of nude photos, followed immediately by a demand for $5,000. If Last didn’t pay, the images would be shared with Last’s friends and family.
“They continued the pressure until 2 a.m. when he felt he had no other choice but to take his life. So he did. A span of eight hours. From start to finish it was an eight-hour ordeal,” Stuart said.
Last’s case is one of many sextortion cases involving young men. They often begin the same way: A friend request from a girl.
A PSA from the FBI and police in St. Petersburg, Florida, tries to warn kids about extortion.
“I got a friend request from this girl that just moved here. She says she saw my profile and thinks I’m hot,” the PSA warns.
Authorities suspect many cases of sextortion go unreported, making it a lucrative criminal enterprise.
“This is organized. There are gangs, oftentimes outside the purview of the United States that are trolling on the internet looking for these kinds of victims to lure them in,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge David Walker, with the agency’s Tampa, Florida, bureau.
That was the case with 17-year-old Jordan DeMay in Michigan. The Marquette High School senior took his own life last year after sending a compromising photo to someone he thought was a teenage girl.
His father said the entire ordeal took just six hours.
“This thing is literally happening to every single teenager that’s on social media,” his father, John DeMay, warned. “It’s just a matter of if they bite, how far they bite, how far they go, do they say anything, don’t say anything, up until do they kill themselves over this?”
Jordan’s sextortion included escalating threats and demands for more money even after he sent $300.
“Jordan said I’m going to kill myself right now because of you and those suspects told my son, good go ahead and do it or we’re going to make you do it and he did it,” John DeMay said.
The two Nigerian men who allegedly drove Jordan DeMay to suicide were extradited to Michigan a few weeks ago to face charges. The brothers are suspected of targeting up to 100 people across the U.S.
Stuart is urging parents to talk with their kids about sextortion rather than assuming they’re aware of the issue.
“We thought we had it covered with the parental controls and our close relationship with our kid — we never thought it could happen to us,” she said.
Investigators believe high school boys are being targeted since they may not suspect a scam and many have access to college accounts.
In cases of sextortion, experts say people should alert authorities immediately and block the predator. But they shouldn’t delete posts or anything that can be used as evidence.