The Internet Scam That Led Autistic Boy to Tragically Hang Himself

A 17-year-old autistic boy ended his own life in England after receiving a spam email from “police,” claiming that he had been looking at illegal websites containing indecent images on his computer and had to pay a fine in order to avoid authorities taking action against him. The boy believed the scam was true and decided to hang himself, rather than upset his family.

In August of last year, Joseph Edwards had spent the day at home while his mother, Jacqueline, was out for the day. When Jacqueline returned home sometime after 6 pm, she found her son’s body hanging in the hallway.

During the investigation into the case, the mother stated she had run into the street, screaming hysterically, and how her neighbor, Lee Jobson, was the one to cut down her son’s body and called emergency personnel.

Police arrived on the scene and seized the teenager’s laptop, where they examined his search history.


“It seems that from examining the computer that there appeared to be some sort of scam on it,” the coroner, Michael Burgess said. “He had inadvertently clicked onto this and it seemed to be, according to the police, ‘a poor attempt at blackmail.’”

Unfortunately, Joseph’s autism may have contributed to him taking the scam very seriously.

The detective overseeing the case, Sergeant Peter Wall, is investigating who is behind the elaborate scam, but said tracing who is responsible is difficult, since it did not originate in England.

The mother said her son took his life in order to avoid upsetting her or his sister. “He was generally happy and had just started new friendship circles and was enjoying himself,” she explained at the hearing. “He didn’t seem to have any worries known to me. I don’t think he really understood. He did suffer from autism. I’m not sure he would have really understood the implications of what he was doing. He wouldn’t have done anything to upset myself or his sister, not deliberately.”

The mother hopes that her son’s story will help warn others of the potential dangers of the Internet. “Joseph was subjected to a scam on the internet, a threatening, fake police link that was asking for money,” she said in a statement. “He would have taken it literally because of his autism and he didn’t want to upset Georgia or me. The internet is an amazing thing, but it can also be dangerous and I want parents to make sure their children are aware of this sort of scam, especially autistic children, because they will not understand.”

How incredibly sad! Since most of us can automatically identify spam email, it probably never occurred to us that there are people out there with disabilities, who are easily susceptible to these types of scams. Not only are they at risk of being successfully conned, as this story shows, they are also at risk of an emotional reaction that could cost them their life. Those responsible for these deceitful practices are not concerned with how they may be destroying lives and have no regard for just how far their devastation my go.


Source: http://madworldnews.com/