A sextortion network based in Lagos, Nigeria, has been linked to the tragic death of 16-year-old American student, Evan Boettler, who died by suicide just 90 minutes after receiving a blackmail message on Snapchat.
According to a BBC investigation, Evan, a high school student from Missouri, had been communicating with an account under the name “JennyTee60”, believed to have been operated by scammers posing as a teenage girl.
The account persuaded him to share explicit images and then began ruthlessly blackmailing him. One of the messages sent to him read: “I have your nudes and everything needed to ruin your life.”
His devastated parents, Kari and Brad Boettler, said the teenager had been a “bright, funny” young man who loved to fish, hunt and play sport.
“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 followed the digital trail and discovered that the Snapchat account had logged in from an IP address in Lagos, Nigeria. The discovery led to an investigation that exposed the underworld of online scammers known locally as Yahoo Boys, who run what they call ‘Hustle Kingdoms’, which are rooms of young men operating sextortion and romance scams.
One of the scammers, identified only as Ola, revealed how the network works.
“You open a female account using fake names from fake generators,” he said.
“It’s a site where you get names of people from the country that you want.”
When asked if he felt any guilt, Ola replied: “I don’t feel bad because I need the money.”
He explained that young boys from Western countries were frequent targets.
“Because their sex drive is so high, and young boys are scared of their pictures being released to their class groups, their parents and their friends,” Ola said.
The investigation further revealed that these operations have become more sophisticated. Some scammers now seek help from cyber-spiritualists who offer them rituals believed to protect them from being caught or to make victims more susceptible.
According to the FBI, reports of sextortion have more than doubled in recent years, reaching 55,000 cases in the United States in 2024. Similarly, the UK’s National Crime Agency receives around 110 sextortion reports every month.
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, including by automatically placing teens in the strictest message settings and letting them know when they’re chatting with someone who may be in a different country.”
Snapchat also issued a statement saying: “We have zero tolerance for sextortion on Snapchat. If we discover this activity, we take quick action to remove the account and we support law enforcement efforts to help bring offenders to justice.”
However, the investigation into Evan’s death hit a dead end after a Nigerian telecommunications provider, GloWorld, reportedly failed to retain the data linked to the IP address used by the scammer.
Evan’s parents say they remain heartbroken but determined to push for justice.
“When they finally told us that night that he was gone, it didn’t make any sense,” Kari said again. “I don’t understand how this could happen to our family.”
Nearly two years later, their son’s death continues to highlight the growing global threat of online sextortion and the urgent need for stronger international cooperation to track and prosecute cybercriminals.
