Two men in Nigeria have been arrested in connection with a sextortion scam that pushed a teenage boy in Australia to suicide, police said.
The pair of suspects were found last month in a slum in Lagos five months after the adolescent took his own life, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Police say they realized the boy had been the victim of a criminal extortion plot when they unlocked his phone and viewed the messages he’d sent and received in the hours before his death.
The boy, who has not been named, believed he was messaging a young woman on social media. “It was all jovial banter at first; then it started to become sexualised,” New South Wales Police’s Superintendent Matt Craft told the Herald. “Then all of a sudden, he got sent pictures, and encouraged to send nude pics of himself.”
That was “the gotcha moment,” Craft said, adding that the scammers immediately changed their tone to “high-pressure threats and demands.” The fraudsters specifically threatened to send the intimate images to the victim’s friends and family unless he paid them around $330.
“The messages are horrific,” Craft said. “They’re aggressive and put a lot of pressure on the boy to pay the money.”
The boy took his own life hours later, police say.
Australian cybercrime police traced the scammers to Nigeria, NSW Police said in a statement. An internationally coordinated law enforcement effort eventually led to the two young male suspects being apprehended and charged in relation to the alleged sextortion crimes. Australia does not have an extradition treaty with Nigeria so the two men will be prosecuted under local laws.
Craft added that police in Australia have seen a “huge spike” in sextortion cases, including a rise of almost 400 percent in the last 18 months alone.
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing or texting 988.
