A sextortionist sent a grieving dad a sick message gloating that he had driven his teenage son to suicide.
Gavin Guffey, 17, was the victim of sexual extortion, known as 'sextortion', after evil scammers posed as a girl and tricked him into sending nude photos.
The teenager emptied his bank account of $25 in a desperate bid to stop the pictures being released as he begged for more time.
Tragically though, on July 27, 2022, Gavin shot himself at the family home after being told the scammers would release the explicit content if he didn't pay up.
Dad Brandon Guffey, 54, a Republican politician in South Carolina, revealed his son thought he was safe because was using disappearing messages.
He said: "They used these disappearing messages. So the kids feel safe in the technology. What they don’t realise is, someone has another device recording that device.
“He was telling them he would get them more money, please don’t send these images out…they didn’t care.
"I think in his mind it was just too much, and he didn’t know how he would overcome that.”
But on what would have been Gavin's 18th birthday, Mr Guffey, from South Carolina, US revealed a horrific message on Instagram mocking his son's death.
He told CNN: "It said, ‘Did I tell you your son begged for his life,’ with a laughing face emoji."
The lawmaker believes the scammers went through Gavin’s friends list on social media and sent messages to everyone with a similar last name, including Mr Guffey’s nephew.
Following Gavin's tragic death at his home in Rock Hill, House lawmakers unanimously passed a state bill to criminalise the crime which led to his son's death.
'Gavin's Law' was passed on Thursday as an emotional Mr Guffey looked on from the senate chambers.
Scammers who extort a minor will face up to five years in jail under the new law.
According to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, sextortion cases have gone up in the past year, and a number of them are contributing to an alarming number of suicides nationwide.
Dr. Carl Fleisher, an expert in adolescent and child psychiatry, said predators prey on young male victims by tricking them into believing they are talking to girls their own age in order to get them to send explicit photos and videos.
The scammers will then threaten to release the images if they're not paid.
The FBI said: "This crime starts when young people believe they are communicating with someone their own age who is interested in a relationship.
“The shame, fear, and confusion children feel when they are caught in this cycle often prevents them from asking for help or reporting the abuse.”
An FBI spokesperson said no arrests have been made in the case.
