Two Nigerian brothers, Samuel and Samson Ogoshi, were sentenced to serve 17½ years in prison for their roles in a sextortion scheme that led to the suicide of Michigan teenager Jordan DeMay in 2022. This case marked the first time Nigerian sextortion scammers were extradited to the United States and sentenced to prison, according to the FBI. Sextortion is a social media crime trend where bad actors trick victims, often minors, into engaging in sexual acts or sending money. The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan emphasized the importance of being cautious online and urged victims to reach out for help.
Jordan DeMay, who was 17 years old at the time, was blackmailed by the Ogoshi brothers into sending money after they posed as a woman on Instagram and threatened to expose explicit photos he had sent. The exchange escalated until Jordan threatened suicide, to which one of the brothers responded callously. The FBI reported over 13,000 cases of online financial sextortion involving at least 12,600 victims, with the Ogoshi brothers targeting 100 victims, including minors. They would use hacked social media accounts to pose as young women and conduct extensive research on their victims to use against them.
Sending money to sextortion scammers does not stop the threats, according to experts, and only leads to more demands from perpetrators. Negotiations between the U.S. and Nigeria to extradite the Ogoshi brothers included removing the death penalty as an option and reducing their charges in exchange for guilty pleas. Defense attorneys argued that the brothers were victims themselves, having experienced trauma in Nigeria as children and being drug users. The FBI emphasized the importance of spreading awareness about sextortion and expressed sympathy for victims like Jordan DeMay who fell prey to these crimes.
Sextortion primarily targets minors, with the average age of victims between 14 and 17 years old, according to the FBI. Offenders usually originate from African and Southeast Asian countries, with a 20% increase in sextortion incidents involving minors reported between October 2022 and March 2023. The impact of sextortion can be severe, leading to suicide and self-harm. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offers a free tool called “Take it Down” to help victims remove explicit images shared online. The sentencing of Samuel and Samson Ogoshi was aimed at preventing them from victimizing minors in the United States or worldwide.
