South Carolina lawmaker who lost teen son to sextortion says social media companies not doing enough
South Carolina state Rep. Brandon Guffey says social media companies are not doing enough to protect kids from sextortion scams after his 17-year-old son, Gavin, died by suicide.
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
"[A]ll u have to do is cooperate with me and i will not expose u, if you block me i will ruin your life."
That's one of the many threatening messages a Nigerian scammer sent to a young Pennsylvania man identified only as J.S. in court documents.
The scammer — who posed as a woman on Instagram, Google and Snapchat — contacted the young man and established a relationship him online.
They exchanged nude photos online, and then the scammer turned on J.S., demanding a blackmail payment of $1,000 from the victim to keep the photos private. The scammer, still posing as a woman, threatened to expose J.S.'s intimate photos if he did not front the money, and J.S. took his own life shortly after the blackmailing began.
SOUTH CAROLINA LAWMAKER EXPOSES DANGERS OF ‘SEXTORTION’ AFTER TEENAGE SON'S SUICIDE
The father of young Pennsylvania man who died by suicide after becoming the victim of a sextortion attempt helped lead the FBI to Nigerian suspects charged in the case. (FBI)
The scam that led to J.S.'s suicide is called "sexrotion," and it's becoming ever more prevalent in the United States, leading to more teen suicides every year since about 2020, when the crime took off on social media sites like Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and other platforms.
"When predators pose as someone else online to coerce victims into taking and sending sexually explicit photos and videos—and then immediately demand payment or threaten to release the photo to the victim’s family and friends—it's known as financially motivated sextortion," an FBI bulletin about the crime states.
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Sextortion can also be financially motivated, according to the FBI, as it was in this case.
J.S.'s father helped the FBI track down the scammers who extorted his son, according to federal officials.
Imoleayo Samuel Aina, Samuel Olasunkanmi Abiodun and Afez Olatunji Adewale, of Nigeria, have all been charged in connection with thes extortion scheme. Aina and Abiodun have been extradited from Nigera to the United States. The trio is accused of coordinating to target the victim and get him to wire money to their fraudulent bank accounts.
Aina allegedly threatened to "ruin" the victim's "career" if he did not hand over a blackmail payment to the suspect, according to court documents.
J.S.'s father contacted the scammer who led to his son's death by suicide and screenshotted the suspect's responses. (Eastern District of Pennsylvania)
"I don't even think I have enough for it," J.S. said in one message to the suspect, according to court documents. Three minutes after sending that message in January 2023, he died by suicide, federal officials said.
In the days following the man's death, his father discovered "suspicious banking transactions" to an unknown phone number from J.S.'s Zelle account. He sent the information to the FBI, which found an email address with a female name — Antonia Diaz — that was linked to the phone number. That phone number was tied to multiple other email addresses using different variations of the name "Antonia Diaz."
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After issuing subpoenas to Google twice, FBI agents were able to connect the various email addresses to a phone number in Nigeria, court documents show.
Adwale would later tell authorities that any emails with the name "Antonia Diaz" or "Antonia Andy" was his online romance scam "persona." The had been in communication with a real person named Antonia Diaz from 2022 until May 2023, according to authorities.
"Over the course of the communications, [Antonia] Diaz sent ADEWALE a copy of her New York State Identification, U.S. Passport, and Social Security card."
"ADEWALE stated that Diaz gave him access to bank accounts. According to ADEWALE, he reset the password for Diaz’s Bank of America account and also helped Diaz set up a new account at an unknown bank," court documents state
South Carolina Sen. Brandon Guffey, who lost his own 17-year-old son, Gavin Guffey, to suicide due to sextortion, told Fox News Digital that these scammers will target young women in similar schemes in exchange for their account information and intimate photos that they can then use in financially motivated sextortion schemes involving male victims. In other words, just because a Nigeran man may be posing as a young American woman online does not mean he is using fake photos.
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Adwale, Aina and Abiodun are part of a group of sextorition scammers known as the "Yahoo Boys" in Nigeria.
In March 2023, two months after his son's death, J.S.'s father logged into his Snapchat account and saw that his son had been receiving messages from a user under the name "Alice." J.S.'s father messaged the user, who responded by demanding money.
In March of 2023, two months after his son's death, J.S.'s father logged into his Snapchat account and saw that his son had been receiving messages from a user under the name "Alice." J.S.'s father messaged the user, who responded by demanding money. (Eastern District of Pennsylvania)
A Pennsylvania district court judge subpoenaed Snapchat for records related to the "Alice" Snapchat account, which was linked to another Nigerian phone number.
"J.S.’s father later reviewed J.S.’s Apple iPhone, and observed that notifications of emails from ALICEDAVE660@GMAIL.COM appeared repeatedly," court documents state. "J.S.’s father emailed that address using his own email account, identifying himself as J.S.’s father and requesting a phone call. ALICEDAVE660@GMAIL.COM refused to speak with J.S.’s father by phone, and instead directed via iMessage that J.S. ‘reply me if he doesn’t want trouble.’"
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J.S.'s father then sent screenshots of the communication from the "Alice" email to authorities. On March 30 of that year, an Undercover FBI employee ("UCE") sent a friend request to "Alice" on Snapchat and ultimately got the account to share various bank account usernames, thinking the undercover employee was a friend of J.S.'s who would send more money.
Guffey said the "most important thing" for a sextortion victim to do when they realize they have been victimized by such a scheme is "not send money."
"Once you send the money, then [the scammers] know that they have you, and it will not ever stop."
"The most important thing for [victims[ to realize is to remember that they are a victim of a crime," the South Carolina state senator said. "They are not the cause of this happening. They are not in trouble because they sent an image. And then I always recommend to not delete the messages. Instead, screenshot them and go offline. Disconnect your account because they will continue to harass you."
Brandon Guffey (right) has been exposing the dangers of sextortion after his son, Gavin (second from right), committed suicide last year. (Brandon Guffey)
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Victims of sextortion schemes should not be afraid to ask for help from their guardians or from law enforcement. As the crime becomes more and more common, there is more help available to help victims of sextortion.
Last month, Meta released new information about its efforts to combat sextortion scams coming out of Nigeria and that "Yahoo Boys," specifically, on the tech giant's various social media apps, including Instagram.
The company said it removed about 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria attempting to target people with financial sextortion scams on Meta apps, including a coordinated network of around 2,500 accounts.
GROWING SNAPCHAT ‘SEXTORTION’ SCHEMES TARGET YOUNG BOYS, EXPERT WARNS
It also removed about 7,200 assets, including 1,300 Facebook accounts, 200 Facebook Pages and 5,700 Facebook Groups based in Nigeria that were publishing scamming tips on Meta's platforms.
A new Instagram feature called Nudity Protection, which will be turned on by default for users under 18, will blur nude images sent through direct messages (DMs) on the app prompt users with messages when the app detects nudity in a user's DMs. (Meta)
Meta also recently unveiled new safety protections on Instagram aimed at preventing sextortion schemes.
The FBI received more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion involving at least 12,600 victims between October 2021 and March 2023.
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The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has created a free service called Take it Down, which is meant to help victims of sextortion erase explicit images of victims or get bad actors to stop sharing them online. The tool can be accessed at https://takeitdown.ncmec.org.
The FBI encourages anyone who believes they may be the victim of sextortion or know someone who may be a victim to immediately contact local law enforcement or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or online at tips.fbi.gov.
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