Sextortion: “In 6 hours, my son was dead”

A mother whose son committed suicide just six hours after being targeted by “sextortionists” is campaigning to raise awareness.

Jordan DeMay died in 2022 after brothers Samuel and Samson Ogoshi targeted him from Lagos, posing as an attractive girl his age and then blackmailing him with explicit images of himself.

Today, his mother, Jenn Buta, uses the TikTok account Jordan created for her to warn young people about such criminals, mainly based in Nigeria – and her videos have more than a million likes .

Nigerian police told BBC News it was “laughable” to suggest they were not taking these crimes seriously.

The attackers, aged 20 and 22, flirted with the 17-year-old on Instagram and sent him sexual photos before persuading him to share explicit images of himself.

They then blackmailed him for money so he would not share the photos online.

And when Jordan said he couldn’t send any more and might commit suicide, the Ogoshis told him, “Do it quickly – or I’ll force you to do it.”

Extradited to the United States, they pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Another man opposes his extradition from Nigeria.

“It was less than six hours from when Jordan started communicating to when he ended his life,” Jenn told BBC News from her home in Michigan, in the northern United States. United.

“There’s actually some sort of script online.”

“And these people are just going through the script and putting on the pressure.”

“And they do it quickly, because then they can move on to the next person, because it’s about volume.”

Sextortion mainly targets boys or young men.

In April, two more Nigerians were arrested after an Australian schoolboy killed himself after being targeted.

Japan has seen a surge in cases linked to Nigeria.

US crime figures show cases more than doubled last year to 26,700, and at least 27 boys have committed suicide in the past two years.

This week, technical officers from Nigeria’s National Cybercrime Center are meeting with the UK’s National Crime Agency in London to discuss ways to improve cooperation on cybercrime, including by regarding sextortion.

Last month the NCA issued a warning to children and schools over increasing threats.

Sextortion could come from foreign organized crime groups, mainly in some West African countries, but also in Southeast Asia.

Cybersecurity researchers say these crimes are often linked to Nigeria’s Yahoo Boys, so named because of a wave linked to Yahoo emails in the early 2000s.

Earlier this year, analysis by the Network Contagion Research Institute, a US cyber firm, found a network of Nigerian accounts on TikTok, YouTube and Scribd sharing tips on how to blackmail teenagers.

Cybercrime center director Uche Ifeanyi Henry told BBC News his officers were “hitting criminals hard” and defended their work tackling the crime wave.

“People who think Nigeria is not doing enough are laughable,” he said.

The fact that the government has spent millions of pounds creating a state-of-the-art cybercrime center proves it is taking the problem – and particularly sextortion – seriously.

“We hit criminals very hard,” Mr. Henry said.

“A large number of them were prosecuted and arrested.

“Many of these criminals are now moving to neighboring countries because of this.”

Cases of sextortion are still on the rise, with Nigerian teenagers also being targeted.

But criminals are not just a Nigerian problem and the fight against them requires global support.

However, Dr Tombari Sibe of Digital Footprints Nigeria said cyber fraud, such as sextortion, had become normal for the large, young and tech-savvy population.

“The main triggers are social and economic in nature,” he said.

“There is also the big problem of unemployment and poverty.”

“All these young people who don’t have much – it’s almost become a common activity that they don’t really think about the consequences of.”

In the meantime, Jenn continues to campaign, alongside Jordan’s father.

She said she has been contacted by other parents, in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, who have lost children to these crimes, and helped to console them.

“I get messages from parents all the time asking what to do because this happened to their child,” Jenn said.

“Sometimes they just want to tell me what happened to their child.”

“Sometimes they thank me because they remembered Jordan’s story and came to me for help.”

The advice that Jenn and many law enforcement agencies regularly give to people targeted by sextortionists is:

.Remember that you are not alone and it is not your fault

.Report the predator’s account, via the platform’s security feature

.Block the predator so he doesn’t contact you

.Save the profile or messages – they can help law enforcement identify and arrest the predator

.Seek help from a trusted adult or law enforcement before sending money or other images

.Cooperating with the predator rarely stops blackmail and harassment – but law enforcement can…