![]() Predators typically trick their young male victims into believing they are talking to girls their own age, persuade them to send explicit photos and videos, and threaten to release those images if a payment is not sent. Over a dozen of the sextortion victims died by suicide, the FBI says. Nearly half of those resulted in victims, a majority of them boys. In 2022, law enforcement agencies received over 7,000 reports related to the online sextortion of minors, federal officials say. ![]() ![]() Sextortion schemes happen primarily online. Sextortion targets thousands of teens every year, the FBI says It declined to provide additional information, citing an ongoing investigation. In an email to CNN, an FBI spokesperson in Columbia, South Carolina, said no arrests have been made in the case. “I think in his mind it was just too much, and he didn’t know how he would overcome that.” “He was telling them he would get them more money, please don’t send these images out … they didn’t care,” Guffey says. ![]() Gavin had used Venmo to send the scammers $25 – all the money he had in his account – and pleaded for more time. What they don’t realize is, someone has another device recording that device,” he says. He discovered that the scammers used a vanish mode feature that deletes messages as soon as the recipient exits the chat. He started piecing together his son’s final days using messages from the scammers and information shared by investigators. The family didn’t have access to Gavin’s computer and iPad – investigators took them as part of the probe into his death, Guffey says. Brandon Guffey's bill criminalizing sextortion is awaiting the governor's signature after being passed in the state's House and Senate. He believes the scammers went through Gavin’s friends list on social media and sent messages to everyone with a similar last name, including Guffey’s nephew. Law enforcement officials told him not to respond, but he says it took every ounce of strength he had to ignore it. “It said, ‘did I tell you your son begged for his life,’ with a laughing face emoji,” Guffey says. One message, sent to Guffey’s Instagram inbox on August 20, the day Gavin would have turned 18, outraged him. In the weeks after the funeral, the scammers barraged Guffey and his younger son, Coen, 16, with Instagram messages demanding money in exchange for the nude photos. Guffey and his wife, Melissa, have spent months trying to untangle the mystery surrounding their son’s death. Henry McMaster to be signed into law.įor weeks, the family tried to unravel the mystery surrounding his death Lawmakers are expected to send the bill soon to Gov. Under the law, scammers who extort a minor or an at-risk adult will face up to 5 years in prison for a first offense. State senators passed the legislation Thursday – naming it “Gavin’s Law” – as a tearful Guffey watched from senate chambers. His fellow House lawmakers unanimously passed the bill last month. His first order of business was to introduce a state bill to criminalize the type of scam that led to his son’s death. Six months later, after a winning campaign, he assumed office. The cases are contributing to an alarming number of suicides nationwide, the alert said.Īt the time of his son’s death, Guffey, 43, was running for state House representative. Sextortion cases have gone up in the past year, federal officials said in a recent safety alert issued in partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Gavin had unwittingly become a victim of sexual extortion, or “sextortion,” a crime the FBI warns is increasingly targeting underage boys. Gavin Guffey had just graduated from high school when he died by suicide in July last year.
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