Mark and Ros Dowey, parents of a British teenager who took his own life after falling victim to sextortion, have issued a heartfelt plea to the perpetrators, urging them to stop the cruel act.
Their 16-year-old son, Murray, was tricked by scammers in Nigeria, who posed as a girl to obtain compromising images of him.
Speaking to the BBC, Mark described his son as “a really lovely kid” and said they had no warning of what was happening. “He went up to his room, and he was absolutely fine. And you know, we found him dead the next morning,” he said.
Ros echoed the sentiment, lamenting that they never had the chance to intervene. “We had no chance to notice there was something wrong and try and help and fix it,” she said.
In an emotional video message, the Doweys called the actions of the scammers “cruel” and implored them to reconsider their ways. “You’re abusing children. You’ve ended Murray’s life,” they said. “How would they feel if it was their child, their little brother, or their friend? It’s so cruel, and this is children—it’s abuse.”
Sextortion, a growing cybercrime linked to Nigeria, has been described by some perpetrators as an “industry.” In an anonymous interview with the BBC, a scammer in Lagos admitted to treating the crime like a game, justifying it as a means of survival.
“I know that it’s bad, but I just call it survival of the fittest,” the scammer said. “It depends on the fish you catch. You might throw the hook in the sea and catch small fish or big fish.”
However, after watching the Doweys’ emotional message, the scammer admitted feeling remorse. “I was almost crying. I felt very bad,” he said.
Murray’s case was part of a wider trend of sextortion scams targeting young victims, often through social media platforms. In September, two Nigerian brothers were sentenced in the United States to over 17 years in prison after their sextortion scam led to the suicide of Jordan DeMay, a 17-year-old American. The brothers had posed as a girl on Instagram to manipulate DeMay, who died less than six hours after engaging with them.
This marked the first successful prosecution of sextortion in the US, highlighting the severity of the crime.
The Doweys also criticised social media companies for failing to protect children online. Ros expressed frustration at their lack of accountability. “You’re terrorizing people, children, for some money, and I don’t think in any society that is in any way acceptable,” she said.
LEADERSHIP recalls that Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, reported removing over 63,000 accounts linked to sextortion scams in Nigeria in July. Last month, the company said it deleted another 1,600 groups associated with ‘Yahoo Boys,’ a term often used for online scammers in Nigeria.
Mark and Ros Dowey joined the launch of a new campaign in Edinburgh aimed at educating young people about the dangers of the crime.
The fearless campaign, a collaboration between Police Scotland, Crimestoppers, and the Scottish Government, highlighted the risks of sharing intimate images online and offers practical advice for those targeted by criminals.
Speaking at the launch, Assistant Chief Constable Steve Johnson acknowledged the challenges in tracking offenders but stressed the importance of reporting crimes to the police. “It’s difficult but not impossible to track offenders,” he said. “Reporting these crimes helps with evidence gathering, and we will pursue these criminals no matter where they are in the world.”
Mark and Ros Dowey, reflecting on the loss of their 16-year-old son, delivered an emotional message to young people who may find themselves victims of sextortion.
“There’s nothing that is worth taking your own life for,” they said. “If something happens to you, put that phone down and go and get somebody you trust and tell them it’s happened.”
They emphasised the urgency of addressing the crime to prevent further tragedies. “We can’t have this happening to more children, what happened to Murray.”
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