A Starkville father is speaking out after his son committed suicide after being the victim of a scam on Instagram.
Brian Montgomery, the father, told Fox News that his 16-year-old son, Walker Montgomery killed himself on December 1.
The scam targets young teenage boys between the ages of 14 and 17.
According to his obituary, Walker loved football and excelled in academics. He was described as having an “innate and boundless appreciation and love for the outdoors”.
Walker’s father said that scammers from Nigeria extorted money from his son over a video the teenager made. They told Walker that they would share the video if he didn’t pay them a certain amount of money.
The scammers usually pretend to be a mutual friend of the victim and often use the profile picture of an attractive girl.
Walker’s father said that they did a video chat with Walker which soon included nudity between the scammer and Walker.
“On the other side of that, they were actually videoing Walker,” Brian said.
They then extorted Walker for $1,000.
Fox News reported that “The information we collected shows that the pressure Walker was under was unbearable. Walker finally told the scammers, ‘Hey, I’m going to commit suicide. I’m going to kill myself.’ And they respond with, ‘Go ahead, because you’re already dead.’
