A 16-year-old private schoolboy who killed himself after being targeted by a Snapchat nudes ‘sextortion’ plot may have been targeted by Nigerian scammers pretending to be his online girlfriend, his father has said.
Keen footballer and rugby player Dinal De Alwas, a straight A* student with hopes of studying at Cambridge, took his own life in October 2022 after cybercriminals blackmailed him.
The teenager, who was a pupil at Whitgift School in Croydon, was sent two photos of himself and told they would be sent to ‘all his online’ followers unless he paid £100 – instead he left his family home and recorded a brief video saying he planned to kill himself.
His heartbroken father Kaushallya De Alwis says police are essentially powerless to find the people behind the scam his son as they live in Nigeria and believes they may have targeted him by faking being a woman.
The 52-year-old, who previously paid tribute to his ‘golden boy’, said the family had ‘no idea’ anything was wrong with Dinal in the days leading up to his tragic passing and urged teenage boys to avoid sharing photos of themselves online or they could be targeted like his son.
Dinal De Alwis (pictured) took his own life in October 2022 after being targeted by scammers online
The teenager (pictured) was blackmailed by Nigerian scammers who demanded £100 and said if he did not pay they would send the photos to his followers online
It is believed that Dinal, who was described by family as ‘gifted’ and ‘gentle’, had been contacted by scammers on messaging app Snapchat, who tricked him into believing they were an online girlfriend.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Mr De Alwis says the family still don’t know who this person was, although they believe he could be one of a growing number of people to fall victim to African romance fraudsters.
‘Police do not have any protocols to go behind these people’s [online identities] because it is in Nigeria,’ he told the publication.
‘We do not know who took the picture, when it was taken, how it got into the blackmailer’s hands. That is a big question mark. I asked police and they do not know.
‘There could be a possibility that Dinal had a girlfriend. He had a few girlfriends in the past so if the girlfriend was a fake person and wanted to earn money from taking pictures … It is a possibility that he may have got caught by these predators.’
Mr De Alwis, who moved to the UK from Sri Lanka with his wife, said his son was ‘caring’ and they thought things were ‘going smoothly’.
The family had sent Dinal to Whitgift School in Croydon – near their detached home in Sutton, south London – where boarding fees reach £48,000 and alumni include former England rugby star Danny Cipriani and illusionist Derren Brown.
‘But you cannot keep watch 24/7 on exactly what children are doing and see the threats on their laptop’ he told the paper.
‘The advice I want to give kids is: do not take or exchange online any pictures. These things can get into the wrong people’s hands.
‘For instance, if a girlfriend took a picture and that person’s phone was stolen and got into the wrong people’s hands, that is an easy way to earn some money. There are lots of possibilities.’
Dinal (pictured) filmed a video saying he intended to take his own life after being threatened by the scammers and was found dead hours later
Dinal was a pupil at Whitgift School in Croydon (pictured) – near the family’s detached home in Sutton, south London – where boarding fees reach £48,000
An inquest held last month heard that Dinal, who was an academic ‘high-flier’ according to his father, had begun studying for the International Baccalaureate in sixth form and was top of the school in English and economics.
He had attended an open day at Cambridge, where he hoped to continue with economics.
But following dinner at home in October 2022 – just days after a family holiday in Majorca over the autumn half-term break – he uncharacteristically told his mother ‘just leave me alone’.
Only later did it emerge that at 1am he was sent the two naked photographs of himself – perhaps following previous contact with the blackmailer.
South London Coroner’s Court heard that the blackmailer – who is also thought to have had other victims – wrote: ‘So you think blocking me can stop me? What do you want me to do – you want me to send to all of your followers? Why can’t you just pay me? £100?’
Dinal responded that he had assumed the pictures had already been distributed.
He slipped out of the house at 2am and recorded a brief video of himself walking down a suburban street. Little more than an hour later his body was found after he had fallen to his death, which was caught on CCTV.
Police and the National Crime Agency admitted to Dinal’s parents that they were unable to trace the blackmailer – but said that he appeared to have been operating from Nigeria.
Mr De Alwis wept as he told the coroner: ‘Dinal was the most caring son. He was bright.
‘He got straight A*s in all of his subjects at GCSEs and was top of the school for English and economics.
‘We come from Sri Lanka, so we were so proud to hear he was so good at English. He was brave. He played for the football and rugby teams at Whitgift School. He never asked for anything from us. He was always happy with what he had.
‘His loss is the biggest possible loss. It is so incredibly painful. The fact that he ended his life in this way… the world is so cruel.’
Mr De Alwis added: ‘He didn’t show any sort of unhappiness. I think he wanted to avoid any shame from the images going public. I wish he had spoken to us.
‘He had always been so open in the past. But I think that when things are happening online, live, it feels like there is no time. He did nothing wrong.’
Mr De Alwis said he thought a girl may have taken the pictures while with Dinal, and that they ended up in the wrong hands.
But he was also aware blackmailers have been known to pose as attractive girls online, sending erotic pictures and demanding naked ‘selfies’ in return, before demanding cash to keep them private. Mr De Alwis told the Mail: ‘Dinal had had some girlfriends, he’d been very open with me.
‘I’d warned him to be careful. The grieving is never ending. I’m very worried about my younger son – he’s big time into all this social media, and young people underestimate the dangers around them. There must be ways of tracking these things and parents should have access. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.’
The inquest ruled Dinal’s death a suicide.
An investigation by The Mirror last month found that more than 100 children a day in Britain are falling victim to sextortion scammers like those who targeted Dinal.
It revealed that the number of sextortion cases reported to the police had jumped by 390 per cent in just two years, with other young targets also being driven to suicide.
Incidents of financially motivated sexual extortion have been rising across all social media apps, including Facebook and TikTok. But the apps most commonly used for the deranged crime are said to be Instagram and Snapchat.
Sean Sutton from the National Crime Agency said: ‘A lot of the victims feel culpable. Our message is, ‘You have done nothing wrong’. Even the smartest of people have been tricked by these awful offenders.’
‘It is a hideous crime. They don’t have any concern for their victim,’ he added. ‘They are intent on destroying lives, or saying they will.’
Criminal gangs – often based abroad – operate by creating fake online personas using stolen photos. They then begin to befriend others online, engaging in flirty conversation before turning more sexualised.
They then begin sending and asking for explicit photographs. Once they have been received, the crooks demand money or threaten to share the images with the victims social media contacts, friends and family.
According to figures collected from by the paper from 28 police forces, 3,382 incidents were reported in the year up to June 2023. An increase three-fold since 2020/2021.
Greater Manchester Police saw the biggest rise in reports, with those being made by under 18s rising from 20 to 56.
Meanwhile the NSPCC said that the 844 reports were made in Childline counselling sessions last year – a jump of 61 per cent compared to 2021/22. The Internet Watch Foundation said sextortion crimes were up 257 per cent compared with 2022.
- For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116 123, visit samaritans.org or visit https://www.thecalmzone.net/get-support