CROSS LANES, WEST VIRGINIA – A quiet Thursday evening turned into a nightmare for a West Virginia family when their 15-year-old son took his own life just hours after receiving a text message. Bryce Tate, a sophomore athlete and honor roll student, was the latest victim of a vicious international "sextortion" scheme that experts say is surging across the United States.
The Trap
The ordeal began at 4:37 p.m. on November 6. Bryce had just returned from the gym and finished dinner when he received a text from a stranger posing as a local 17-year-old girl.
The scammers used sophisticated social engineering to gain his trust. His father, Adam Tate, explained that the scammers knew which gym he worked out at and name-dropped his best friends to appear legitimate. Once Bryce sent a photo, the tone shifted immediately. The scammers demanded $500 and threatened to release the images to his friends and family if he did not pay.
"Tunnel Vision"
Bryce was terrified and offered the extortionists his last $30, but they refused. In the final 20 minutes of his life, the scammers bombarded him with 120 messages. Authorities call this tactic "tunnel vision" and say it is designed to keep victims in a state of panic. When payment failed, the scammers explicitly encouraged him to kill himself and told him his life was already over.
Three hours after the first text, Bryce was found dead in his home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His father stated that while it is officially a suicide, he considers it to be murder.
Global Criminal Networks
Bryce’s death is part of a disturbing rise in financial sextortion targeting American minors. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported over 33,000 cases of child sextortion in 2024 alone.
Investigations into similar deaths have traced these crimes to specific international criminal networks. For example, two Nigerian brothers were extradited and sentenced to 17 years in prison for the death of Michigan teen Jordan DeMay. Authorities also imprisoned a money mule for Ivory Coast scammers regarding the death of Californian Ryan Last. Bryce's case bears hallmarks of the "764" network, a violent online group with operatives in Russia, Europe, and the U.S. that aims to destroy vulnerable populations.
Adam Tate continues to fight for "Bryce's Law" to create harsher penalties for cyber crimes resulting in suicide.
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