This article discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
“[A]All you have to do is cooperate with me. I will not expose you. If you block me, I will ruin your life.”
This was one of many threatening messages sent by a Nigerian scammer to a young Pennsylvania man, identified in court documents only as JS.
Posing as a woman on Instagram, Google and Snapchat, the scammers contacted the young man and began a relationship online.
The two exchanged nude photos online, after which the scammer assaulted JS and demanded a $1,000 blackmail payment from the victim in exchange for keeping the photos private. The scammer, still posing as a woman, threatened to expose JS’s private photos if the money was not paid up front, and JS committed suicide shortly after the blackmail began.
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The father of a Pennsylvania teenager who committed suicide after being sexually blackmailed helped the FBI track down a Nigerian suspect charged in the case. (FBI)
The scam that led to JS’s suicide is called “sexsortion” and is increasingly prevalent in the United States, where the number of teen suicides has increased every year since around 2020, when the crime spiked on social media sites such as Instagram, Snapchat and Discord.
“When a criminal poses as someone else online and blackmails a victim into taking and sending sexually explicit photos or videos of themselves, then immediately demands payment or threatens to release the photos to the victim’s family and friends, this is known as financial sextortion,” an FBI bulletin on the crime said.
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According to the FBI, sex blackmail can also be motivated by money, as in this case.
Federal officials said JS’s father enlisted the FBI’s help in tracking down the con artists who had blackmailed his son.
Three Nigerians, Imoreayo Samuel Aina, Samuel Olasunkanmi Abiodun and Afeez Olatunji Adewale, were indicted for their role in the extortion scheme. Aina and Abiodun were extradited from Nigeria to the United States. The three are accused of conspiring to target victims and trick them into transferring money to fraudulent bank accounts.
According to court documents, Aina allegedly threatened to “ruin” the victim’s “career” if the victim did not give him blackmail money.
JS’s father contacted the scammer who led to his son’s suicide and took screenshots of the suspect’s responses. (Eastern District of Pennsylvania)
“I think I don’t have enough money,” JS said in a message to the suspect, according to court documents. Three minutes after sending this message in January 2023, JS committed suicide, according to federal authorities.
A few days after his death, JS’s father discovered “suspicious banking transactions” from JS’s Zelle account to an unknown phone number. He sent the information to the FBI, who discovered an email address linked to the phone number under a woman’s name, “Antonia Diaz.” The phone number was linked to multiple email addresses under different names for “Antonia Diaz.”
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After issuing two subpoenas to Google, FBI agents were able to link various email addresses to Nigerian phone numbers, according to court documents.
Adewale later told authorities that the emails sent under the name “Antonia Diaz” or “Antonia Andy” were “personas” for his online romance scam. Authorities said Adewale was in contact with a real person named Antonia Diaz from 2022 to May 2023.
In the process of communication, [Antonia] Diaz sent Adewale copies of his New York State ID, 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 open a new account at an unknown bank,” court documents state.
South Carolina Senator Brandon Guffey, whose 17-year-old son Gavin Guffey committed suicide after being blackmailed for sex, told Fox News Digital that scammers are using similar tactics to target young women, extorting account information and intimate photos in exchange for financial sex blackmail involving male victims. In other words, just because Nigerian men are posing as young American women online doesn’t mean they’re using fake photos.
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Adewale, Aina and Abiodun are part of a group of sex blackmail fraudsters known in Nigeria as the “Yahoo Boys.”
In March 2023, two months after his son’s death, JS’s father logged into his son’s Snapchat account and saw that his son had received messages from a user named “Alice,” who sent him a message, but the user replied demanding money.
In March 2023, two months after his son’s death, JS’s father logged into his son’s Snapchat account and saw that his son had received messages from a user named “Alice,” who sent him a message, but the user replied demanding money. (Eastern District of Pennsylvania)
A district court judge in Pennsylvania subpoenaed Snapchat for records related to an “Alice” Snapchat account that was linked to another Nigerian phone number.
“JS’s father subsequently checked JS’s Apple iPhone and noticed repeated email notifications from ALICEDAVE660@GMAIL.COM,” court documents state. “JS’s father then used his own email account to email the address, claiming to be JS’s father and requesting a phone call. ALICEDAVE660@GMAIL.COM refused to speak to JS’s father over the phone, instead instructing JS via iMessage to ‘reply if you don’t want the hassle’.”
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JS’s father subsequently sent authorities screenshots of “Alice’s” email correspondence. On March 30th of that year, an undercover FBI agent (“UCE”) sent “Alice” a friend request on Snapchat, eventually getting the account to provide the usernames of various bank accounts that the undercover agent thought were JS’s friends who would send her more money.
Guffey said the “most important thing” for victims of sextortion to do if they realise they have fallen victim to such a scam is “don’t send any money.”
“If you send money, [the scammers] Just know that they have you and it will never stop.”
“The most important thing for victims to realize is to remember that they are victims of a crime,” the South Carolina senator said. “They are not the reason this happens. Just because you sent an image doesn’t make you a problem. And I always recommend not deleting the messages. Instead, take a screenshot and go offline. Disconnect your account because they will continue to harass you.”[victims[torealiseistorememberthattheyareavictimofacrime”theSouthCarolinastatesenatorsaid”TheyarenotthecauseofthisappeningTheyarenotintroublebecausetheysentanimageAndthenIalwaysrecommendnotdeletingthemessagesInsteadscreenshotthemandgoofflineDisconnectyouracismbecausetheywillcontinuetoharassyou”[victims[torealizeistorememberthattheyareavictimofacrime”theSouthCarolinastatesenatorsaid”TheyarenotthecauseofthishappeningTheyarenotintroublebecausetheysentanimageAndthenIalwaysrecommendtonotdeletethemessagesInsteadscreenshotthemandgoofflineDisconnectyouraccountbecausetheywillcontinuetoharassyou”
Brandon Guffey (right) has been speaking out about the dangers of sextortion since his son Gavin (second from right) committed suicide last year. (Brandon Guffey)
FBI warns of increasing number of juveniles being targeted in online ‘blackmail’ schemes
Victims of sextortion should not hesitate to seek help from their guardians or the police. As the crime becomes more common, so too does the amount of support available to help victims of sextortion.
Last month, Meta released new information about its efforts to combat sex blackmail scams originating from Nigeria, specifically “Yahoo Boys” on the tech giant’s various social media apps, including Instagram.
The company said it had taken down around 63,000 Nigerian Instagram accounts attempting to operate sextortion scams for financial gain on the Meta app, including around 2,500 organized networks.
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Also removed were about 7,200 assets, including 1,300 Nigeria-based Facebook accounts, 200 Facebook pages and 5,700 Facebook groups that were publishing scam tips on Meta’s platform.
The new Instagram feature called “Nudity Protection,” which will be enabled by default for users under the age of 18, will blur nude images sent in direct messages (DMs) and notify users via message if the app detects nudity in their DMs. (Meta)
Meta also recently announced new safeguards on Instagram aimed at preventing sex blackmail.
The FBI has received more than 13,000 reports of online financial fraud. Sexual extortion involving at least 12,600 victims From October 2021 to March 2023.
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The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has launched a free service called Take it Down to help victims of sextortion delete explicit images of them or stop bad actors from sharing them online. The tool: Please visit https://takeitdown.ncmec.org.
The FBI is urging anyone who may be a victim of sextortion, or knows someone who may be a victim, to contact them immediately. Local law enforcement or the FBI Contact FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or online at tips.fbi.gov.
