Financial sextortion: the boys lost within hours, and what stops it

What happened to five boys

Sextortion is blackmail built on a private picture. In the cases below, the pictures were sent to someone the boy believed was a girl his own age. Every family named here chose to speak publicly, and the details come from the reports that quote them, from court records and from coroners.

Jordan DeMay was 17 and lived in Marquette, Michigan. According to the Justice Department, he died on 25 March 2022 as a result of a scheme run by two brothers in Lagos, Nigeria, Samuel and Samson Ogoshi. The BBC reported that the scammers contacted him on Instagram, posed as a girl his age, and demanded money. Jordan sent what money he could. The BBC counted less than six hours between the first message and his death. His mother, Jenn Buta, told the BBC the scammers worked from a script and moved fast to reach the next target.

Gavin Guffey, 17, lived in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The Justice Department says he died in July 2022 after a man posing as a young woman on social media got him to send compromising photos and then threatened to leak them unless he paid. The same man is accused of doing the same to members of Gavin's family. His father, Brandon Guffey, is a state representative and told the BBC he had been preparing a lawsuit against Meta before his son died.

Rohan Cosgriff, 17, lived in Miners Rest, near Ballarat in Australia. A Victorian coroner found that he was coerced on Snapchat by an account calling itself "Christine" and that the threat to distribute the image came less than an hour before his death. The coroner noted he had no known mental health problems.

Murray Dowey, 16, lived in Dunblane, Scotland. His parents told the Guardian that police needed two weeks to get into his phone, and only then learned that criminals had targeted him that night. "He was duped into thinking he was talking to a young girl," his mother Ros said.

Evan Boettler, 16, lived in Aurora, Missouri. In January 2024 he was contacted on Snapchat by someone he took to be a girl. The BBC reported that within minutes he had been persuaded to share explicit images and was immediately blackmailed. The first threat, according to the BBC, read: "I have your nudes and everything needed to ruin your life." The BBC puts about 90 minutes between that first message and his death. His mother told the Secret Service the span from first message to the end was about two hours.

The pattern repeats: a boy nobody was worried about, a stranger who seemed friendly, and a pressure campaign so short that no one else knew.

Case	Age	When	What the sources report
Jordan DeMay, Michigan	17	March 2022	Instagram contact, under six hours (BBC). Two brothers in Nigeria sentenced to 210 months each in September 2024 (Justice Department).
Gavin Guffey, South Carolina	17	July 2022	Man posing as a young woman allegedly coerced photos and extorted the family. Extradited from Nigeria in January 2025 and presumed innocent until proven guilty (Justice Department).
Rohan Cosgriff, Victoria, Australia	17	July 2022	Snapchat account traced to Nigeria. Coroner urged education that tells victims they will be OK (ABC).
Murray Dowey, Scotland	16	December 2023	Police told the family he was targeted by sextortion criminals that night (Guardian).
Evan Boettler, Missouri	16	January 2024	Snapchat, then Instagram. Trail to a Nigerian provider went cold because it had not kept user data (BBC).

How the scheme works, step by step

Law enforcement calls this financially motivated sextortion. The FBI says sextortion was historically driven by sexual gratification and control but is now mostly motivated by greed.

The BBC spent time with scammers in Lagos for its 2025 investigation. One of them, who gave his name as Ola, described step one: you open a female account using fake names from a name generator, picking names from the country you want to target. The Justice Department's account of the Ogoshi case adds a detail. The brothers bought hacked social media accounts and used them to pose as young women, so the profile often looked real, with history and friends.

1. A fake girl contacts the boy on Instagram, Snapchat, or a gaming platform. The FBI says these are places where young people feel comfortable. The profile may be a hacked account, which makes it look established.
2. She flirts, often sends a sexual picture first, and asks for one back. The FBI says the aim is to trick the teen into sending explicit material, or into believing the scammer already has it.
3. Within minutes the tone changes. Evan Boettler was blackmailed immediately after sending his images, the BBC reported.
4. The scammer shows how much they know. In the Ogoshi case, according to the Justice Department, the brothers researched where the boys lived, studied, worked, and who their friends and family were. They then built a collage that put the explicit image next to pictures of the boy, his school, his family and his friends.
5. They demand payment, typically through peer-to-peer payment apps or gift cards. The Justice Department notes that images are often released even after payment.
6. The demands repeat and the deadlines shrink. The pressure is meant to leave no time to think or talk to anyone.

Ola said he picked teenagers because young boys are scared of their pictures being released to their class groups, their parents and their friends. Asked about the harm, he told the BBC: "I don't feel bad because I need the money."

The BBC also filmed what it was told are called "Hustle Kingdoms": rooms where young men trade fake profiles and scripts, with money flowing up to a leader. The Guardian describes the scripts and "how-to" guides shared online as simple and often brutally effective. The BBC met one scammer who had paid $3,500 for a face-swapping tool, and the UK's National Crime Agency says AI use in sextortion has increased substantially over three years.

The numbers behind the stories

Nobody has a complete count, because many cases go unreported. The official figures point the same way.

• In January 2023 the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and NCMEC said that over the previous year law enforcement received over 7,000 reports related to the online sextortion of minors, with at least 3,000 victims, primarily boys, and more than a dozen deaths.
• The FBI later said that from October 2021 to March 2023 it and HSI received over 13,000 reports, involving at least 12,600 victims, mostly boys, and at least 14 suicides in that period.
• The BBC reported in 2025 that US reports of sextortion to the FBI had more than doubled in three years, reaching 55,000 in 2024.
• In the UK, the National Crime Agency told the Guardian that police forces received an average of 117 reports a month from under-18s in the first five months of 2024. It says 15 to 17-year-olds remain the most affected group.
• The offenders are mostly outside the United States, primarily in Nigeria and Ivory Coast in west Africa and the Philippines in Southeast Asia, according to the FBI and the NCA.

Behind every one of these numbers is a boy who got a message he did not know how to answer. The next question is the one every parent asks afterwards: why didn't he tell us?

Why shame keeps boys silent

The Justice Department's alert says it plainly: the shame, fear and confusion victims feel in this cycle often stop them asking for help or reporting, and may drive them toward self-harm. The FBI says victims often feel isolated, embarrassed, and cornered, with seemingly no way out.

The scammers know this and design for it. The threat is never only the picture. It is the picture in front of classmates, parents, a coach. Ros Dowey put it this way to the Guardian: "That's why they target teenagers, because they don't have the life experience to understand it will pass."

Speed is the other weapon. In the cases above, the stretch between the first threat and the worst outcome was measured in hours or less, which leaves no time for fear to ease or for anyone to notice.

The coroner who investigated Rohan Cosgriff's death, Audrey Jamieson, drew a lesson from this. She wrote that there was a lot of existing education telling young people not to send intimate images, but that with all the education in the world they will still sometimes do it. In her words: "The conversation must turn to 'should you find yourself in this situation, it is going to be OK'." She added that the most important thing for a young person in that situation is to know they have not done anything wrong, that they are a victim, and that help exists.

What helped, where we can see it, was knowing in advance that talking is allowed. The Secret Service tells of a school visit to the Boettlers' town in April 2025. Three days later, one student in the audience was approached by someone trying to sextort him. Because he had heard Evan's story and knew the resources, he called his mother. Murray Dowey's father said it better than any official could: the answer is "putting the phone down, walking away, saying to someone else, 'This has happened, what the hell do I do?'"

If it is happening to you: the first hour

If you are a teenager reading this while you are being threatened, you are the victim of a crime. These steps come from the FBI, NCMEC, the Justice Department and the UK's National Crime Agency, in the order that matters most.

1. Stop and breathe. The NCA's message to victims is "Stay calm. Don't pay." The pressure is designed to make you act in minutes. You do not have to answer.
2. Do not pay and do not send more. The FBI and NCMEC both say that cooperating or paying rarely stops the blackmail and the harassment.
3. Tell someone now. A parent, an older sibling, a teacher, a school counsellor, a coach, a friend's parent. If you do not feel you have an adult in your corner, NCMEC says you can email gethelp@ncmec.org or call 1-800-THE-LOST.
4. Do not delete anything yet. NCMEC says to block the predator but not to delete the profile or the messages, because they can help law enforcement identify and stop the person. Take screenshots of the profile and the messages, including usernames and payment requests.
5. Report the account through the platform's safety feature, and then block it.
6. Report it to law enforcement. In the US, call 1-800-CALL-FBI, go to tips.fbi.gov, or contact your local police. NCMEC also takes reports at cybertipline.org. In the UK, children and young people can report to CEOP through the NCA's Safety Centre.
7. Start the image removal process, described below.

The goal of the first hour is not to solve everything. It is to bring in one person who can think clearly with you.

If you are the parent or friend

Susan McLean, a cyber safety expert and former police officer in Victoria, told the ABC what parents should do. Mental health support must be the first 10 steps, she said, and everything else is secondary: report the abuse to the platform, block the offender, then support your child.

• Start by reassuring. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in 2024 that it is up to all of us to reassure victims that they are not in trouble, there is hope, and they are not alone.
• Do not lecture about the picture. The coroner's point holds: the lesson about not sending images can wait. The first lesson is that this can be survived.
• Take over the practical steps together: reports, screenshots, blocking.
• Keep the help lines in the last section of this article close, and use them if your child is in distress.

Getting the images taken down

Fear of exposure is the whole weapon, so reducing exposure takes some of its power away. Several free services exist.

• Take It Down (takeitdown.ncmec.org), run by NCMEC, is a free service to help remove or stop the online sharing of nude, partially nude or sexually explicit images or videos taken of someone under 18, according to the Secret Service.
• Report Remove, from the Internet Watch Foundation and Childline in the UK, lets under-18s anywhere confidentially report nude or sexual images of themselves and get them removed and blocked from being re-uploaded. The BBC notes it cannot remove content from encrypted networks such as WhatsApp or from someone's phone or computer.
• NCMEC's page "Is Your Content Out There?" at missingkids.org explains how to notify companies yourself.
• In the US the Take It Down Act, signed on 19 May 2025, prohibits the nonconsensual online publication of intimate images, real or computer-generated, and requires websites to remove them promptly after notice, according to the Secret Service.

How platforms and police respond

Meta told the BBC that it removed 63,000 sextortion accounts linked to Nigeria in a single sweep in 2024, including 2,500 that were part of a coordinated network targeting Western teenagers. It says teen accounts on Instagram can only be messaged by people they are connected to. Snapchat told the BBC it has "zero tolerance for sextortion" and removes accounts it finds or that are reported. Brandon Guffey told the BBC that one account used against his son was removed but others stayed live, and asked why nothing had been done since.

The Boettlers described the other problem to the BBC: platforms refuse to share information without a court order, which the family did not have. The one real trace was an IP address leading to a Nigerian service provider, which should have kept user records for two years and had not.

The strongest results come from cross-border police work. The Ogoshi brothers were arrested in Lagos, extradited in August 2023, pleaded guilty in April 2024, and in September 2024 were each sentenced to 210 months, with the Justice Department thanking Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. In January 2025 FBI agents took custody of Hassanbunhussein Abolore Lawal in Lagos after his extradition in the Guffey case. He is presumed innocent until a court rules.

Not every case ends this way. The director of Nigeria's National Cyber Crime Centre told the BBC that many criminals have been arrested and prosecuted, and that sextortion is not only a Nigerian problem.

How to lower the risk

Murray Dowey's family had talked about the dangers of sharing photos, and it still happened to him. Prevention is no guarantee, but it can change what happens in the first minutes. The FBI's tips, repeated in the Michigan sentencing release, are practical:

• Be selective about what you share. If your accounts are open to everyone, a predator can learn about your school, your friends and your family.
• Remember that people can pretend to be anyone. Photos and videos are not proof of who someone is. Images can be stolen, and some predators have taken over accounts.
• Be suspicious if someone from one game or app asks you to move to a different platform, and remember that once you send something, you no longer control where it goes.
• Decide your plan before you need it: if something goes wrong, who do you tell first? Murray Dowey's father also argues that children's contacts should be private by default, which would remove a pressure point scammers use.
• Pre-agree with your family that you will not be punished for telling them. In Evan's case, his parents said he never indicated to them what had happened.

If you need to talk to someone now

If you are thinking about harming yourself, or someone you know is, please contact someone right now. You do not have to be sure it is serious enough.

• In the United States, call or text 988 for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or go to 988lifeline.org.
• In the UK and Ireland, call Samaritans free on 116 123.
• Anywhere else, call your local emergency number, or go to someone in the house.
• If you are being sextorted, you can also contact NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST, or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov. UK children and young people can contact Childline.

A sextortion attempt can feel like the end of everything. The families in this story, and the coroner who studied one of these deaths, say the same thing: you are not in trouble, there is help, and telling someone is the step that works.

Frequently asked questions

What is sextortion?

Sextortion is a form of sexual exploitation where someone is threatened or blackmailed, most often with the posting of a nude or sexual image, unless the victim provides more images, money, or sexual activity. The financial version, which mostly targets teenage boys, is run by criminals who demand money.

What is a sextortion scam and how does it start?

According to the FBI, predators pretend to be attractive young girls to befriend teen boys, often on social media and gaming platforms. They trick the teen into exchanging explicit material or into believing they already have it, then demand money so it is not shared with family and friends.

What should I do if I am being sextorted?

Do not pay and do not send more images. Tell a trusted adult, block the account after saving screenshots, report the account on the platform, and report it to law enforcement, for example at tips.fbi.gov in the US or CEOP in the UK. Then start image removal with Take It Down.

Will paying make the blackmail stop?

No. The FBI and NCMEC say that cooperating or paying rarely stops the blackmail and harassment. The Justice Department notes that sextortionists often release images even after payment, and that scammers often demand more.

Is it my fault if I sent a picture?

No. The FBI says you are not at fault and you are not alone, and NCMEC says the predator is to blame. The Justice Department says young people who are exploited are victims of a crime and should report it.

How do I get nude images of me taken off the internet?

If you were under 18 in the picture, NCMEC's Take It Down service is free, and UK under-18s can use Report Remove from the Internet Watch Foundation and Childline. For other situations, NCMEC's Is Your Content Out There page explains how to notify companies.

Where can I get sextortion help right now?

In the US, call 1-800-CALL-FBI, go to tips.fbi.gov, or contact NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST or gethelp@ncmec.org. In the UK, use CEOP. If you feel unsafe, call or text 988 in the US, call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, or call your local emergency number.