A Kentucky teenager committed suicide after being blackmailed by an anonymous individual who sent him AI-generated nude photographs of himself and threatened to make them public.
The victim, Elijah "Eli" Heacock, received the unsettling text in February along with the demand of $3,000 in compensation to keep them from being sent to family and friends. While the images were generated by artificial intelligence, it was unclear whether or not the teen knew.
Teen Commits Suicide After Being Victim of Sextortion Scam
The 16-year-old was later reported to have died on Feb. 28, 2025, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a local hospital. Eli's parents were at his bedside when they discovered the series of AI-generated images on his phone and the threatening texts.
The teen's mother, Shannon Heacock, said the blackmailers started asking her son for money. A Barren County Sheriff's Office detective looked at the messages on Eli's phone and said that the FBI needed to be brought in to look at the case, according to People.
Local officials and the FBI said that they believe the teenage boy was the victim of a sextortion scam. His father, John Burnett, said they were completely unaware of sextortion and how the scam actually works.
The mother said she also found texts that suggested her son sent some of his money to the scammer, who then said that it was not enough. His father said that the criminals who are after children are "well organized."
The case highlights the rapid rise in the number of sextortion scams as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) said it has received more than 500,000 reports of cases targeting minors in the last year, CBS News reported.
The Rise of Generative AI
The FBI also estimated that since 2021, there have been at least 21 young people who have committed suicide because of sextortion scams. Teenage boys have specifically been a preferred target of bad actors, the NCMEC said in 2023.
The situation comes as generative AI has become more advanced and has become more of a part of the public's daily lives. More than 100,000 reports that were filed with the NCMEC this year alone involved generative AI.
Following the death of her son, the teen's mother started an online campaign, where she often tags top politicians across party lines in a bid to spread awareness and demand action in fighting against sextortion scams.
One example is when she tagged Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and told the Republican that her son was the victim of a sextortion scam, noting that the mule was in Texas, as per NDTV.
