The afternoon that 15-year-old Bryce Tate was sextorted started off as a perfectly normal Thursday.
The Cross Lanes, W. Va., sophomore came home from the gym on Nov. 6, scarfed down a plate of tacos prepared by his mom, then went outside to shoot hoops. At 4:37 p.m., he received a text message from a strange number.
Three hours later, Bryce was found in his dad’s man cave — dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.i
“They say it’s suicide, but in my book it is 100% murder,” Bryce’s father, Adam Tate, told The Post. “They’re godless demons, in my opinion. Just cowards, awful individuals, worse than criminals.”
According to his dad, Bryce was apparently the latest victim of a vicious sextortion scheme targeting teen boys — one that law enforcement says is surging.
A representative for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children told The Post the group tracked over 33,000 reports of child sextortion in 2024 alone — with nearly that number reported in the first six months of this year.
Online scammers scour public social media profiles to learn about a teen, then pose as a flirtatious peer.
“They acted like a local 17-year-old girl. They knew which gym he worked out at, they knew a couple of his best friends and name-dropped them. They knew he played basketball for Nitro High School,” Adam said. “They built his trust to where he believed that this was truly somebody in this area.”
The Post is told that the photos Bryce received were not AI-generated but most likely of a real girl who was another victim.
Scammers then ask for illicit photos in return and, once they have them, extort the victim for money by threatening to show the pics to family and friends.
More: https://x.com/marshablackburn/status/1998506793769529859?s=46&t=IydJ-X8H6c0NM044nYKQ0w
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