> After his death, the scammers sent Guffey a laughing face emoji and a message using a pseudo account on Instagram after the original one was shut down. “It said, ‘did I tell you your son begged for his life?’” Guffey says. They also demanded money in exchange for the photos.
I wish there was a special prison for these types of people. Jesus Christ.
points to one of the major issues around this. Why are these even possible? Instagram is a social network for real people. Implement a strong form of ID verification. Charge people a dollar for a sign up. Sure there'll still be edge cases of people using stolen creds but it cuts down what, 99.9% of scam? The kid in the article was extorted for 25$. Drive the cost of this crap up.
I had a "son" WhatsApp scammer I took for a chat gpt ride. The "father" wouldn't send money cause the son was an addict. Sleezy scumbag happily pressed along promising rehab, sun and moon.
I wish there was a special prison for these types of people. Jesus Christ.