A boy of 17 took his own life after he was caught up in a webcam-based blackmail plot.
Daniel Perry had been chatting on Skype with someone he thought was a girl of his own age. Instead, he was connected to a gang who told him they would send his parents pictures and videos of him unless he paid them money.
It is thought that he was targeted by fraudsters after he tweeted his Skype address.
The Daily Mail reports that in 'extreme cases' blackmailers ask for naked pictures or stripteases, then threaten to post the images or videos on Facebook or Twitter. Within an hour of being told to pay money into an account, apprentice mechanic Daniel jumped to his death from the Forth Road Bridge.
A friend of his family said that knowing him as she did, he would have felt 'embarrassed' and 'horrified' and as though he had 'let everybody down'.
"He was coming up for his 18th birthday so it's not as if we could have been checking what he was doing on his laptop," the source said. "However he wasn't doing anything wrong, just what anyone his age might do, but this scam is all about exploiting young people.
"Even if he came to me and said he needed money we'd have helped him but we knew nothing about any of it."
She added that Daniel was a 'happy laddie' and not the type of person who let things get him down.
"'We're a very close family and I just wished he had come to me and said something. I would have gone on the computer and told them to P-off," she said.
Shortly before taking his life, Daniel asked the blackmailers 'what can I do to stop you showing this to my family?'
He was then told to pay funds into a named bank account or his life would not be worth living and he 'would be better off dead'. He replied 'bye.'
After jumping from the bridge, Daniel was rescued by a lifeboat crew, but died shortly after.
His heartbroken mother said that she wants to educate other youngsters about the dangers of the internet.
"When I feel strong enough I want to do something to stop this happening to other young people. I'll go to the high schools and tell them what can happen," she said. "If I can stop this from happening to other young people then I feel I'll have done something for him."