Financial Sextortion and Suicide

Late last month, an article appeared on the USA Today website under the headline, “These teenage boys were blackmailed online- and it cost them their lives.” Above the headline was a collage of photos of smiling, happy teens, each of whom had died by suicide after getting caught up in an online trap called financial sextortion. It’s a cybercrime that occurs when an online predator cultivates a friendly relationship with an unknowing young person who grows to trust the interactions, thinking that this person is a friend. Eventually the predator engages in sexually explicit conversation with the victim or convinces the victim to send a nude photograph. Immediately, the victim is threatened with exposure or jail time unless they send a large amount of money, sending message upon message stating such, which leads the victim to panic, which leads many to see no way out but suicide. Parents, the message here is clear: warn your kids to never engage online with someone they don’t know.