FRENCHTOWN — MTN told you about a growing threat to teenagers last summer that is so dangerous and pervasive that the FBI sent out a nationwide alert — it's called "sextortion".
We shared with you the story of a 16-year-old Frenchtown boy named Waylon who took his own life after falling victim to people who convinced him to send them explicit pictures of himself and then threatened to send those images to everyone he knew if he didn't pay them.
The information in that story has actually gone on to save lives because Waylon's parents are determined to turn their 'anguish into action'.
“Who would imagine that somebody across the country could come through the internet to your kid’s life and convince them to take their own life,” said Waylon’s mom, Christina Scheffer.
“When he called me the night before he wouldn’t even tell me. He said ‘These people have something on me. They’ll send them to everyone on my phone if I don’t send them a certain amount of money’. He wouldn’t tell me what they had on him, but I had a pretty good idea,” Waylon’s friend Blake Marshall recalled.
Marshall had that last conversation with his friend Waylon mere hours before Waylon took his own life.
“It's an act of terrorism that’s being put on our kids and social media is allowing this to happen,” Waylon’s dad, Jason Scheffer told MTN.
What’s happening is sextortion. We first told you about it last summer when the Scheffer family courageously shared Waylon’s story — and as heartbreaking as it was to hear, it has helped.
"I know for a fact we’ve saved a handful of kids. We’ve been contacted by people from all over the U.S. saying our kid got involved in this and you saved him...and other people saying we didn’t even know this was out there and we’re awake now. Your story saved our son or others say we didn’t know...but parents are saying we are awake now,” Jason Scheffer said.
Sextortion is basically an international organized crime the FBI is warning parents about. Scammers weave their way through the internet through apps where they pose as a teen’s love interest and create an online and intimate relationship. The victim has no idea it's not real. Then, they relentlessly extort the teens for money, threatening to share explicit photos of them online.
The fear and panic of that humiliation of a teen, has caused the unthinkable to happen — over and over.
“It makes me feel good because I’m sharing and we are saving kids, but in the same sentence, I wish I would have been able to know beforehand,” Christina Scheffer told MTN.
Christina is preparing to share her son’s story with high school counselors next month in Helena. It is a bittersweet assignment.
“For me as a mom, I can’t help my child now, but I would like to make it to where nobody else has to find out about sextortion the way we did,” she explained.
Although the FBI is warning parents and students about sextortion, schools are now talking about it — because they have to.
“I think it’s brought more community awareness, more activism definitely on the school’s part and the community's part to get away from the phrase ‘it’s not going to happen here’,” Frenchtown Middle School Principal Aaron Griffin said. “It did happen here.”
School Resource counselor Deputy Scott Rasmussen says fear might keep kids from asking for help. He's trying to change that.
"The rules that parents provide their kids are probably all the same. Be safe, don’t do dumb things. Don't share inappropriate pictures online. But unfortunately, the kids are left to their own devices to make those choices. So, what we want to try and educate...getting past that stigma of I messed up, I made a mistake. It’s an embarrassment, but we can still talk about it.”
"How many situations don’t we know about? How many kept it underneath the blanket and didn't go to their parents and are getting beaten up as we speak because they’re too embarrassed to come forward?” Jason Scheffer asked. “It’s probably a disgusting number. What’s out there?”
Griffin says kids are way ahead of adults when it comes to apps, what's popular and how they work. But there is something that can help parents because hearing about sextortion and what it can do is tragic.
A digital class designed to help parents understand social media and the dangers that kids face — and how to work with kids to have a healthy relationship in the online world — will be held from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. on May 1, 2024, in the Frenchtown High School auditorium. The class will be led by Deputy Rasmussen and school counselors.
Visit https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety/common-scams-and-crimes/sextortion to learn more information about sextortion.
