Nigerian scammers of Michigan football player pay price for teen's sextortion suicide

This story is about suicide. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

A judge in the US state of Michigan on Thursday sentenced Nigerian brothers Samuel and Samson Ogoshi to 17.5 years in prison for their respective involvement in a sextortion scheme that killed 100 people and led to the suicide of Michigan teenager Jordan DeMay in 2022.

“I think at the end of the day, this case is a testament to what we can do as a country and we can give some credibility to what is really happening to young people online,” Jordan's father, John DeMay, told Fox News Digital. “It shows people that [sextortion] is real. I think that's the most important part of the sentence. That was the last piece of that puzzle… that says, “Hey, that's a valid claim.”

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Jonker announced the decision Thursday morning, marking the first time in the country's history that Nigerian sextortion scammers have been extradited to the United States and sentenced to prison, the FBI confirmed to Fox News Digital.

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“Today's sentencing of Samuel and Samson Ogoshi sends a thunderous message,” U.S. Attorney Mark Totten for the Western District of Michigan said in a statement Thursday. “To the criminals who commit these schemes, you are not immune from justice. We will track you down and bring you to justice, even if it means traveling halfway around the world. The days when you could commit these crimes, make easy money, destroy lives and evade justice are over.”

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Sextortion is a Crime trend in social media Victims, many of whom are minors, are tricked by scammers into engaging in sexual acts or sending extortion money, according to the FBI.

Totten asked parents, teenagers and “anyone who uses a cell phone” to “please be careful.”

“Don't assume people are who they say they are,” Totten added. “Don't share compromising images. And if you are a victim, please come forward. There is help and law enforcement is ready.”

Jordan DeMay was 17 years old in March 2022 when Samuel Ogoshi, now 24, and Samson Ogoshi, 21, both from Lagos, Nigeria, worked together to pose as a woman using a hacked Instagram account and start a conversation with the teenager. They eventually blackmailed him into sending money and threatened him with more money until he took his own life in March 2022.

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The same night the Ogoshis began communicating with Jodan on Instagram, the teenager sent an explicit photo of himself to the account, which he thought belonged to a woman.

Samuel Ogoshi threatened to expose the matter and make it “viral” online if Jordan did not immediately send him money, prosecutors said. Jordan complied and sent him money, but from there the crime only escalated as Ogoshi demanded more and more money from the 17-year-old.

The exchange lasted for hours in a single night until Jordan told Ogoshi he was going to commit suicide.

“Good,” he wrote. “Do it quickly. Or I'll make you do it. I swear to God.”

NIGERIAN MEN FACE US JUSTICE FOR SEXTORTION PLAN THAT LEAD TO TEENAGERS’ SUICIDE

The FBI received more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion between October 2021 and March 2023, involving at least 12,600 victims.

According to the Justice Department, they also targeted 100 other victims in similar schemes, including at least eleven other minors.

The Justice Department said both perpetrators, who pleaded guilty to their crimes, purchased the hacked social media accounts and posed as young women on fake profiles, which they used to catfish their victims – or in other words, to trick victims into believing the fake accounts were real.

They then conducted extensive online research on the victims they targeted, going so far as to find out where they lived, what schools they attended, where they worked, and who their family and friends were – all with the aim of obtaining personal material that they could use against them.

Once the victim sent nude photos, the Ogoshi brothers created a collage of the victim's sexually explicit photos and threatened to share them with the victim's family, friends, and schools unless the victim was willing to pay money to stop them.

But sending cash doesn't stop sextortion scams, say experts familiar with the crime. Sending cash to scammers only causes them to demand more and more from their victims, creating a never-ending cycle of threats and a sense of hopelessness among victims.

John DeMay pointed out that during negotiations between the US and Nigerian governments over the extradition of the Ogoshi brothers, US authorities had to remove the death penalty from the table. The brothers' charges were also reduced as part of their confessions.

“So when we look at the sentencing guidelines, which call for 15 to 30 years in prison, they've already given them a lot of leniency,” DeMay explained. “They've already given them a lot of concessions. That's why I have a little problem with only 17 years, because they've already taken 5 to 10 years off the lesser charge that they've already imposed. They've already taken other charges off right at the beginning.”

Defense attorneys portrayed the Ogoshi brothers as victims, saying terrorists burned down their home in Nigeria when they were children. Their lawyers also said they took drugs while committing these sextortion crimes online, DeMay said.

The Ogoshis' lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.

GROWING 'SEXTORTION' TREND: BOYS ARE TRAPPED INTO SEND EXPLICIT IMAGES THROUGH GAMING SITES AND EXTORTED MONEY

“The conviction of sextortionists Samuel and Samson Ogoshi ensures that both international criminals will no longer victimize minors in the United States or around the world,” Special Agent in Charge Cheyvoryea Gibson of the FBI's Detroit Field Office said in a statement.

“Spreading awareness of sextortion is one of the FBI's top priorities here in Michigan. Our thoughts and prayers are with Jordan DeMay's family and the people affected by the criminal actions of these individuals.”

The average age of sextortion victims is between 14 and 17 years old, the FBI said in a press release earlier this year. However, the agency pointed out that any child can become a victim.

Perpetrators who commit financially motivated sextortion typically come from African and Southeast Asian countries, according to the FBI. The FBI also recorded a 20% increase in sextortion incidents involving minors between October 2022 and March 2023.

Sextortion can lead to suicide and self-harm. Between October 2021 and March 2023, most victims of online financial extortion were boys. These reports involved at least 20 suicides, the FBI said.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has set up a free service called “Take it Down” to help victims of sextortion delete explicit images of victims or get perpetrators to stop sharing them online. The tool can be accessed at the following address: https://takeitdown.ncmec.org.

Source of the original article: Nigerian scammers of Michigan football player pay price for teen's sextortion suicide