Year: 2025

A sextortion network traced to Lagos, Nigeria, has been linked to the tragic death of 16-year-old American schoolboy Evan Boettler, who took his own life just 90 minutes after receiving a blackmail message on Snapchat from someone posing as a teenage girl. Evan, from Missouri, had been communicating with a Snapchat account under the name “JennyTee60,” according to a BBC investigation. The account reportedly persuaded him to share explicit images before ruthlessly blackmailing him. One of the messages sent to the teenager read: “I have your nudes and everything needed to ruin your life.” His devastated parents, Kari and Brad Boettler, described Evan as a “bright, funny” young man who loved fishing, hunting, and sports. “When they finally told us that night that he was gone, it didn’t make any sense. I don’t understand how this could happen to our family,” Kari said. Brad added: “It wasn’t hard to parent him because he was such a good human.” Investigators later traced the Snapchat account’s login to an IP address in Lagos, Nigeria, leading to the discovery of an online underworld of cybercriminals locally known as “Yahoo Boys.” These networks, dubbed “Hustle Kingdoms,” consist of rooms of young men who run sextortion and romance scams targeting victims across the globe. One scammer, identified only as Ola, explained how the operation works: “You open a female account using fake names from fake generators. It’s a site where you get names of people from the country that you want.” When asked if he felt guilty, Ola said: “I don’t feel bad because I need the money.” He added that young boys in Western countries are frequent targets because “their sex drive is so high, and they’re scared of their pictures being released to their class groups, parents, and friends.” The investigation revealed that some of these criminal groups now employ “cyber-spiritualists” who perform rituals purportedly to protect them from being caught or to make victims more vulnerable to manipulation. According to the FBI, reports of sextortion have surged in recent years, with over 55,000 cases recorded in the United States in 2024 alone. The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) also receives around 110 sextortion reports every month. In response, major social media companies have pledged stronger action. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said: “We have around 40,000 people working on safety and security globally, with over $30bn invested in this area over the last decade. We automatically place teens in the strictest message settings and alert them when they’re chatting with someone who may be in a different country.” Snapchat similarly stated: “We have zero tolerance for sextortion on Snapchat. If we discover this activity, we take quick action to remove the account and support law enforcement efforts to bring offenders to justice.” However, the probe into Evan’s death reportedly stalled after Nigerian telecom provider GloWorld failed to retain data linked to the IP address used by the scammer. Nearly two years later, Evan’s parents remain heartbroken but determined to seek justice. “When they finally told us that night that he was gone, it didn’t make any sense,” Kari repeated. “I don’t understand how this could happen to our family.” Evan’s death continues to underscore the growing global threat of online sextortion and the urgent need for stronger international cooperation to identify and prosecute cybercriminals.