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This story is about suicide. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
“You just have to cooperate with me and I will not expose you.”
So wrote a Nigerian man posing as a woman on Instagram in a March 2022 message to 17-year-old Jordan DeMay before the Michigan teen committed suicide.
“My son was smart. He was a good student. He was a great athlete,” John DeMay, Jordan’s father, told Fox News Digital. “Someone came to his bedroom at 3 a.m. and killed him via Instagram when we were all sleeping at night, and we didn’t have a chance to stop it.”
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John DeMay is sounding the alarm about “sextortion” after his 17-year-old son, Jordan DeMay, committed suicide last year. (John DeMay)
The suspect in Jordan’s death, 22-year-old Samuel Ogoshi, is one of three Lagos suspects arrested earlier this month for allegedly hacking into Instagram accounts and sexually extorting or “sextorting” more than 100 young men online.
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The FBI defines sextortion as a “serious crime” in which perpetrators threaten to disclose a victim’s sensitive or private information in exchange for sexually explicit material or money.
The suspect in Jordan’s death, 22-year-old Samuel Ogoshi, is one of three Lagos suspects arrested earlier this month for allegedly hacking into Instagram accounts and sexually extorting or “sextorting” more than 100 young men online. (Handout)
In Jordan’s case, the teen started chatting with someone he thought was a woman on Instagram under the username “dani.robertts.” The account was real, but had been hacked and sold to Ogoshi, who used the profile to force young men to send explicit pictures of themselves. According to the FBI, he would have used the photos as leverage for money.
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“I can send these nudes to anyone and your nudes too until it goes viral,” Ogoshi wrote in another message to DeMay, a senior football player at Marquette Senior High School, after the 17-year-old sent an explicit photo of herself. .
Jordan Demay started chatting with someone he thought was a woman on Instagram under the username “dani.robertts.” (handout)
“Just pay me (right now),” Ogoshi said on Instagram. “And I will not expose you.”
“How much,” Jordan replied.
Ogoshi demanded $1,000. Jordan sent $300, and Ogoshi threatened to reveal the teen’s photo to his family and friends if he didn’t send more money.
Hours later, Jordan told Ogoshi that he was going to kill himself.
Ogoshi demanded $1,000 from Jordan. He sent $300 and Ogoshi threatened to share the teen’s photo with his family and friends if he didn’t send more money. (Handout)
“Good,” Ogoshi wrote. ‘Do that quickly. Or I force you to. I swear to God.’
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Federal authorities charged Ogoshi with causing DeMay’s death.
The tragic fate of the 17-year-old footballer is not uncommon in America and around the world. Teenagers in the US are falling victim to sextortion social media.
The tragic fate of the 17-year-old footballer is not uncommon in America and around the world. (Handout)
As his son got older, John DeMay stopped monitoring Jordan’s phone usage as he used to, as most parents do when their teens are approaching adulthood.
“Jordan is such a rare case. I mean, he was a few weeks away from turning 18. We didn’t, I stopped monitoring social media.”
“We didn’t, I stopped monitoring social media. I didn’t let him have social media. I had to keep him from it for a long time,” DeMay explained. “I watched his phone as much as I could. I tracked his GPS. I checked his text messages. I tracked his usage. I locked his phone.”
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a Study from 2018 published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics found that nearly 15% of American youth sent “sexts,” or sexual texts, while 27% of youth received them.
A 2018 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics found that nearly 15% of American youth sent “sexts,” or sexual texts, while 27% of youth received them. (iStock)
The perpetrators pose online as real people – often as attractive women or men – and target young and vulnerable victims. They will contact victims directly and engage in an online conversation, somehow gain the victims’ trust and convince them to send nude photos.
Once the photos are exchanged, the perpetrators threaten to share or make them public if the victims do not send money, other personal information or more explicit images.
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The plan pushes some teens past their breaking point.
A 2022 film called “Sextortion” describes the crime as “the hidden pandemic”.
The film begins with the story of a 14-year-old girl from Bedford County, Virginia, who fell victim to a Facebook sextortion attempt.
Daniel Harris, a married, 30-year-old Air Force pilot and father from Virginia Beach who posed as a teenage boy online, pressured the girl to send explicit photos and then threatened to share them if she stopped sending them. The girl told her parents, who contacted the police.
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Authorities were able to take control of the girl’s account and pose as the 14-year-old victim in communication with Harris until they determined a criminal offense against the victim, at which point they could file a subpoena and were eventually able to find and arrest Harris.
Like dr. Andrew Doan, a neurologist, explains in the film, “For the first time in history, we’re letting strangers interact with our kids in the back of our cars, in their bedrooms, in their homes, through video games and social media.”
A 2022 film called “Sextortion” describes the crime as “the hidden pandemic”. (Auroris media)
Doan went on to explain how groomers can gain victims’ trust.
“As a predator, you can actually create an online profile that matches that kid’s preferences. So while that kid is interacting with that fake account… what they’re experiencing is these super exciting stimuli where the… predator is telling them what they want to hear. They’re telling they talk about their favorite music, their favorite food, their favorite sports and even choose a profile picture that resembles their favorite love interest,” he said.
Doan compared the feeling children experience when talking to strangers online with the high feeling an adult feels after using drugs. However, teenagers’ brains are not yet fully developed and they often do not understand the difference between online chatting with strangers and friends.
Teenagers’ brains aren’t fully developed yet, and they often don’t understand the difference between online chatting with strangers and friends, said neurologist Dr. Andrew Don. (Getty Images)
Another expert on the film said sextortion “usually only stops when the victim’s parents get involved or the perpetrator is identified by the police.”
DeMay said he encourages parents and teens to learn about the risks of sextortion and have a plan if it happens to them or someone they know. Specifically, he advises victims to turn off their phones and immediately contact the police or the FBI.
He also said he would tell Jordan “every day” if he had “the chance” that threats from the sextortionist weren’t the end of his life.
John DeMay said he would tell Jordan “every day” if he had “the chance” that threats from the sextortionist weren’t the end of his life. (Handout)
“(Children) just need to understand that this isn’t the end of what they think their life is, because it isn’t,” DeMay explained.
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The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline received approximately 32 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2022. The CyberTipline’s “online temptation” category saw an 82% increase in complaints between 2021 and 2022.
The FBI encourages anyone who believes they are a victim of sextortion or knows someone who may be a victim of sextortion to contact their local FBI office or toll-free at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.
