Cyber-bullied Teen Takes Own Life

A teenager from upstate New York has killed himself after experiencing cyber-bullying and online blackmail.  

The family of 15-year-old Riley K. Basford say he was tricked into sharing "personal" images over social media by a scammer posing as Basford's girlfriend. 

After obtaining the sensitive images, the scammer threatened to share them online and send them to Basford's family and friends unless the teen paid $3,500. 

The teenager's family say that Basford was "bombarded" with threats via Facebook before taking his own life in Potsdam, New York, on March 30.

“I start crying when I think of the four minutes of sheer panic and pain my baby felt to make that decision and that someone out in the world doesn’t even care that they did that to him,” Basford's mother, Mary Rodee, told the Watertown Daily Times. “It’s so sick and I want everyone to know.”

Basford's family said that the teenager's last morning on Earth had been a typical one in which he fed the family's cows, spent time with relatives, and paid a visit to his dentist.

But at midday, the teen began receiving threatening messages via social media. Within hours, he was dead. 

"They continued to bombard him and bombard him, and finally they broke him,” said Riley’s father, Darren Basford. “He thought this was the only way out because he didn’t want to be embarrassed.”

Basford's mother said her son had displayed no signs of mental illness before killing himsel ..

Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.