The tragic case of a Pennsylvania teenager’s suicide has been linked to a chilling sextortion scam proliferating across the United States, according to a lawsuit recently filed. This disturbing trend on Instagram has ensnared many young victims, leading to devastating consequences.

At just 13 years old, Levi Maciejewski fell prey to this online scheme in 2024. Scammers, masquerading as young women, lured Levi into sharing intimate photos, only to later extort him with threats of public exposure unless their demands for money or favors were met. Overwhelmed by this digital blackmail, Levi tragically took his own life.

In a bold legal move, Levi’s mother, Tricia Maciejewski, has filed a lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram, seeking punitive damages. She argues that her son’s untimely death was both ‘wrongful’ and ‘foreseeable,’ attributing it to the company’s deliberate design choices and its consistent failure to implement readily available safety measures.

The lawsuit, which calls for a jury trial, accuses the tech giant of placing ‘engagement over user safety,’ thereby neglecting the well-being of its users. This legal challenge also represents the family of Murray Dowey from Dunblane, Scotland, who similarly fell victim to a sextortion scheme, resulting in his suicide at the age of 16, a year prior to Levi’s death.

It was filed on behalf of Maciejewski and the family of Murray Dowey, from Dunblane, Scotland, who died by suicide at 16 one year earlier after falling for a sextortion scheme.

Meta was accused of making ‘false and misleading statements designed to convince children and parents that Instagram was safe for teens at the same time that internal testing showed that Instagram was matchmaking children to adult predators’, per the suit’s complaint.

The social media giant called sextortion a ‘horrific crime’ and said it had incorporated ways to protect its younger users, such as making private accounts mandatory for kids under 16.

Levi Maciejewski, 13, took his own life in 2024 after becoming the victim of an online sextortion scam

His mother Tricia Maciejewski filed a lawsuit against Meta on Wednesday for punitive damages, demanding a trial by jury

A ‘predator posing as a young girl’ led to Maciejewski’s death on August 20, 2024, the lawsuit claimed.

He had only created his first Instagram account two days earlier, per the complaint.

The scammer quickly allegedly convinced Maciejewski ‘that they were a young girl and to send compromising pictures’. 

They then threatened to send those to his friends and family unless the teen boy paid $300. He only had $37.18 and some cash on his nightstand, the suit claimed.

Maciejewski then ‘felt vulnerable and trapped as the result of his use of Instagram,’ the complaint alleged. It was not yet known whether he attempted to issue any reports to the social media platform. 

Two days later, Maciejewski died by a self-inflicted gunshot. 

The lawsuit said it took ‘only hours after Meta shared his personal information with a predatory stranger, for these harms to happen’.

Maciejewski’s mother Tricia said that her son’s death happened due to a ‘heinous and rapidly growing crime.’

‘An online predator coerced, threatened, and blackmailed him, leading to devastating consequences,’ she wrote on social media in January.

Tricia added: ‘We were an ordinary family with typical teenage kids, and our lives have been irreparably changed by this unfathomable crime. Now, we are a grieving family trying to find our way without Maciejewski.’

The teen boy was remembered as someone who ‘brightened the lives of everyone who knew him’.

He played travel baseball, youth football and golf. In a public memorial, his family said Maciejewski’s love for athletics reflected his ‘strong work ethic and admirable sportsmanship’.

‘We hope that by sharing our heartbreak, we can bring awareness to the dangers of sextortion and prevent others from experiencing the pain we endure every day,’ Tricia posted.

She claimed law enforcement had determined Maciejewski’s death as a homicide and that efforts were ‘underway to identify and hold the responsible party accountable.’

Maciejewski’s mother Tricia said that her son’s death by suicide on August 20, 2024, happened after an ‘online predator coerced, threatened, and blackmailed him’

A foundation called Live Like Levi was set up in honor of the teen boy following his tragic death.

The suit was filed in Superior Court in Delaware, where Meta Platforms is incorporated. Both families are being represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center, which has previously also sued TikTok and Snap.

‘Meta’s secret is out,’ Matthew Bergman, the law firm’s founding attorney, said in a statement. ‘For years, Meta knew Instagram was a hunting ground for predators, yet chose to protect engagement metrics over children’s lives.’

Bergman accused the social media behemoth of choosing ‘to put their profits over the safety of young people’.

He claimed that Meta was ‘very aware of this extortion phenomenon’ and that the tech company ‘knew as early as 2019 that Instagram exposed children to predators’.

‘This was known. This was not an accident. This was not a coincidence,’ Bergman added. ‘This was a foreseeable consequence of the deliberate design decisions made by Meta.’

He said: ‘That conscious decision to connect random strangers to children has cost families their sons and daughters, turning Instagram into the epicenter of sextortion‑related youth suicides. Had they chosen to follow their own internal recommendations they could have saved countless lives.’

The lawsuit claimed Maciejewski started his Instagram account on August 18, 2024. Two days later, he was dead

A spokesperson for Meta told the Daily Mail: ‘Sextortion is a horrific crime. We support law enforcement to prosecute the criminals behind it and we continue to fight them on our apps on multiple fronts.

‘Since 2021, we’ve placed teens under 16 into private accounts when they sign up for Instagram, which means they have to approve any new followers. 

‘We work to prevent accounts showing suspicious behavior from following teens and avoid recommending teens to them.

‘We also take other precautionary steps, like blurring potentially sensitive images sent in DMs and reminding teens of the risks of sharing them, and letting people know when they’re chatting to someone who may be in a different country.’

Meta also pointed to its different safety features, such as restricting adults from starting chats with teens who do not follow them or preventing users from screen grabbing ‘view once’ media in direct messages.

The international sextortion scheme has increasingly targeted American teens. It caused Bryce Tate, 15, to take his own life with a gunshot on November 6 in West Virginia.

His father Adam Tate said the scammer posed as a 17–year–old girl and knew details about Bryce’s private life, like his high school and social circle.

Murray Dowey, from Dunblane, Scotland, took his own life in December 2023 after falling victim to a sextortion scheme. His family is also suing Meta

‘They knew which gym he worked out at, they knew a couple of his best friends and name–dropped them,’ Tate told the New York Post. 

Bryce was asked to dole out $500, which he did not have. He then died by suicide.

‘They say it’s suicide, but in my book it is 100 percent murder,’ his father said. His family is not part of the lawsuit.

Sextortion can happen within hours and is usually directed at teen boys between 14 and 17. Most victims did not have prior mental health conditions or suicidal ideations.

Through the first six months of the year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported 23,593 reports of financial sextortion – which was a 70 percent increase compared to 2024.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Tricia Maciejewski for further comment.

If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org.