MUM’S NUDE PICS BLACKMAIL AGONY: How Sexploitation Gang Drove Teen To Brink Of Suicide

A horrified mother has revealed how her son was driven to the brink of suicide over nude pictures he sent on social media.

The American mum has been put forward by the FBI as a warning to other parents whose children could be at risk from sexploitation scams.

The mother – called Michelle in the FBI video – tells how her son sent intimate pictures to what he thought was a girl his own age.

Within days, though, he received a series of chilling blackmail threats demanding that he hand over nearly USD 500 (GBP 405) to have the snaps deleted.

The blackmailers threatened to expose him on social media, to his school and his family if he did not pay up.

One Snapchat message said: “Send the 490 now, Or else I ruin your life.”

Another said: “I already sent the nudes to my internet infuencer and my journalist and I think they’re sending them to your school.”

They even sent a photo of a fake ID card for an FBI agent in the name of the Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant.

In the FBI video, Michelle said: “I didn’t realise that something was going on until I got the call from the school.”

Teachers had been alerted by her son’s friends who had received disturbing goodbye texts from him.

Woman with concealed identity tells how her son became a victim of sextortion in FBI PSA video, undated. Sextortion is a crime that involves adults coercing kids and teens into sending explicit images online. (FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation/Newsflash)

Michelle and her family rushed home and found her son “in a situation where it appeared he was actively thinking about suicide”.

She rushed him to hospital and when he returned home he poured out the whole story.

The FBI said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “Over the past year, law enforcement has received over 7,000 reports related to the online financial sextortion of minors.”

Primary targets are young boys, typically aged 12-17, who have a social media presence.

At least 3,000 have become victims and more than a dozen have committed suicide, the FBI added.