Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 788 | The 'Sextortion' Scheme that Killed His Son | Guest: Brian Montgomery

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

Today we're joined by Brian Montgomery, a father from Mississippi who lost his 16-year-old son Walker to suicide last December after Walker was the victim of an online "sextortion" scam. "Sextortion" is a form of blackmail where someone threatens to share a nude or sexually explicit picture or video of the victim unless the predator’s demands are met, and often teenage boys are the targets. While this is obviously the most horrifying thing that can happen to one's child, Brian walks us through how he and his wife found their son the next morning and how they uncovered what actually happened to him. We discuss why all parents need to be aware of evil scams like this one, even if their kids don't show problematic behavior, and Brian explains why he finds it important to share Walker's story. We also talk about how the Montgomerys have processed what happened and clung to their faith. --- Timecodes: (00:59) Interview with Brian begins / about his family (04:38) No warnings (07:45) Finding Walker (14:54) Finding out what happened (29:55) Allowing children to be alone with a phone (34:44) Criminal liability & similar stories (37:27) Warning your kids about this (41:23) Male and female blind spots (44:20) Coping --- Today's Sponsors: Seven Weeks Coffee — Seven Weeks is a pro-life coffee company with a simple mission: DONATE 10% of every sale to pregnancy care centers across America. Get your organically farmed and pesticide-free coffee at sevenweekscoffee.com and let your coffee serve a greater purpose. Use the promo code 'ALLIE' to save 10% off your order. Epic Will — be intentional about your family, your values and your wishes. Go to EpicWill.com/ALLIE and you’ll save 10% on your complete Will package. Naturally It's Clean — visit https://naturallyitsclean.com/allie and use promo code "ALLIE" to receive 15% off your order. If you are an Amazon shopper you can visit https://amzn.to/3IyjFUJ. The promo code discount is only valid on their direct website at www.naturallyitsclean.com/Allie. --- Links: FBI AND PARTNERS ISSUE NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY ALERT ON FINANCIAL SEXTORTION SCHEMES: https://www.justice.gov/usao-vi/pr/fbi-and-partners-issue-national-public-safety-alert-financial-sextortion-schemes --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed.

You can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Walker Montgomery was a 17-year-old boy that had everything going for him until he died by suicide on December 1st, 2022 after falling victim to a sex-stortion scheme on Instagram. And now his dad, Brian Montgomery, is trying to prevent. this tragedy from happening to other teens. And so Brian is here today to share his tragic, but extremely important story and to help parents understand the signs to look for and how they can possibly prevent this from happening to their own families. This episode is brought to you

by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use Code Alley at checkout. That's good ranchers.com code Alley. Brian, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. I think I ran across your story on foxnews.com and I thought, wow, my audience, which is mostly made up of moms, and there are some dads out there too, they need to know that this is going on. So let's start from the beginning. Tell me about your son, Walker, and everything that has happened.

Yeah, so I mean, you know, we always talk about this thing. I mean, it's almost like watching a movie. You know, it's like something you'd see on TV that you can't. You'd never think it would happen to you just kind of a normal family, really. I mean, our family has been blessed without beyond measure, just to be honest, and really lived what I would think of as a fairytale life. I mean, been given every blessing you can imagine. And I mean, our family was very normal.

Walker was very normal and we knew that, but obviously when something like this happens, you start questioning everything. But we have, my wife and I have four kids, two boys and two girls. Carolina is our oldest. She's 18. Walker was 16. Bennett is younger brothers, 13. And then we have a younger daughter named Sarah.

She's 11. So, I mean, our story is we, you know, raised our kids in church. We've raised our kids to respect adults to. to do everything you think that a kid should be raised to do, you know, especially in a world today where that's a little more difficult than it used to be at same, especially my generation. Yeah. But, you know, to speak to Walker, I mean, Walker love football.

We love the outdoors. Some of the pictures you've probably seen of him, some of those that you referenced. When we were on that interview with Fox, we farm, we own land, we work, you know, we hunt, we fish. Walker had a passion for football. Really, that was a passion to develop. You know, about his seventh grade year started really to evolve and something he was really serious about.

And so we obviously supported him in that, and he was very dedicated to that. I mean, I guess if you could describe Walker in the context of who he was, he had a tremendous work ethic, and he was always supportive of his friends and people in school. And something we always loved about Walker is, you know, he was the kid that the parents and the teachers were all, always bragging on and proud to have him in their class. And he was just,

he wasn't perfect, obviously. We wouldn't be here if he was, but just nothing that would indicate anything like this was even remotely possible. Right. And so, you know, so which makes this so much harder, just the imagination of a kid that has all that going for. And, you know, and I think when we've, I've been doing a lot of speaking at schools and, and churches. And I know the kids hear me say that and they're like, How is this possible that a kid that, like, you're describing, there's got to be something else. And, you know, just the reality is it's not. I mean, there's exactly who we thought he was.

And, of course, we had a lot of questions. I'll get into what happened in just a minute. But, you know, we had a lot of questions about, you know, how this, what was going on? Because obviously, we didn't know what happened for a while after Walker's death. And, I mean, this just happened December the first of this past fall. also, you know, all those questions and trying to understand what could have possibly driven him to think this was the right answer. Yes. I mean, when parents, when parents hear stories like this, when we come across these kinds of tragic stories, I think the first natural reaction that people have is what you already mentioned.

Well, there must have been something else because I think what we're trying to. to do is that could never happen to me. That could never happen to my kid. I'm too involved. My kid is too normal. He's too social. He has so much going for him. He doesn't fit the typical what we think or might think the typical profile of someone who would be caught in this kind of circumstance. And so I think that is kind of just the natural response that a lot of parents have because they don't want to grapple with the potential reality of the tragedy like this, hitting their family. But what you're describing is someone, a guy who had everything going for him.

And yet, you know, unbeknownst to you and his mom, there was something else going on behind the scenes, right? Right. And, you know, the thing that we were concerned about is there was something that had been brewing under the surface that we just didn't know about for some time. And so once we were able to, the FBI and local law enforcement ran all the analysis on his telephone. These kids think this stuff is, they can delete it and it disappears or whatever and it doesn't. I mean, everything is there. Everything is retrievable.

And they went through his phone and would a comfort to us. I mean, it's a comfort, but it's also a real fear that parents should have is that once we learned what was in Walker's, because that's the best way to kind of get the perception of if you want to get, close to inside of somebody's mind today it's with their telephone and yeah you know what we found was that walker was just exactly what we thought he was he was a 16 year old boy that like to talk about football like to talk about hunting like to visit with his friends there was nothing no depression no mental issues we already knew that but i mean we just spent too much time with him we would have recognized that as much time as we were together my family is as tight need as you can imagine every

weekend we're together during the week we're playing sports and athletics or we're hunting and it's just always us together so it was no there was no space for that to be some reality even though at the same time when this kind of catastrophe happens you're thinking how is it possible something is here that we don't understand so um i think you know walker's case is one that um you know he he was he was so scared and i think we have a hard time i do i have a hard time wrestling that and so i try to go to stories in the Bible to kind of give me a point of reference. You know, how could something scare you so bad? And I think about, you know, stories in the Bible where you see these heroes in the faith that were just, I mean, David, obviously, going against a giant.

And you see him running for his life shortly thereafter. How could that be the same person? Well, it's just we're all made in certain ways. And there's certain things that bring a fear about that we can't describe. That's what happened to walk him. Yeah. So take us. Take us to take us to the moment. What I imagine was the hardest moment of your life, I'm assuming, which was finding out that Walker had died by suicide.

So take us to that moment. And then we can back up from there as you and his mom discovered kind of what was going on online through social media and behind the scenes. So take us there. Yeah. So, I mean, the night before, I mean, it was a perfectly normal day. They come home from school. Bennett, Walker's younger brother and I went hunting. Walker got home from school whenever we have a shed right by the pole barn, right by our house.

And he goes over there and works out, comes in. I get in from hunting. Bennett gets in from hunting. And we're hanging out. We have supper. We always try to have supper together if possible. Courtney and my wife put them to bed, prayed with them. Everything was just as normal as you could imagine.

We wake up the next morning. My wife and I, we have some coffee and I, I don't know, about 6 o'clock, and we met each other in the living room. She said, I'm going to go up and check on the boys and get them ready for school. And Walker just started driving, so he was, his birthday was November the 1st. And so he had just turned 16. And he was, you know, he had started carrying his brother and sister. His older sister was off at school.

But Bennett and Sarah was carrying them to school. Started that, you know, like I said, within two or three weeks. And so she went up, goes up the stairs and goes and wakes up Bennett. And she goes into Walker's room and sees him kind of laying across his bed. And it's like, well, you know, the first, first land, she thinks, you know, kind of playing a joke on her because she would do that every once in a while, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

And then quickly realizes that it was not a joke. And I guess I could just describe that as complete chaos. And she screams for me, obviously, and I race up the stairs. And I just very hard to describe that moment. It was something that no one wants to hear and someone, no one wants to see or imagine as a parent. You can't imagine it. You can't describe it. you can't. There's no measure of hurt that I can describe it as short of, really short of going

to hell, be honest with you. That's what I think of. The worst thing that a parent can go through. It's one thing for your child to die tragically by natural causes. I mean, that's already one of the worst things that a parent can go through. But for your child to, die like this before they've even really come into bloom. I mean, I imagine it felt like an out of body experience at the time and that there was probably in, you know, in the beginning, a lot of denial that this is even real. It would almost feel like, oh my gosh, please, God, just like, wake me up from this nightmare. I just can't even comprehend. Yeah, that's a, that's, that's exactly what was going on for the first couple hours, you know, it was a real sense of,

this is not real. This is a nightmare. We're going to wake up here any minute. And even into the first, you know, day or two, you know, and even today, I mean, to be honest with you, I mean, there's days today where you're, especially when you wake up, it's, you wake up to a reality that, okay, is this, is this really happening? Yeah. And, you know, you have to, and unfortunately, the, the real confirmation is the memories of that morning. And, you know, my wife and I both struggle with that and Walker's little brother saw him because he's they share the upstairs and he you know he had a real tough time and still have a real tough time um you know I think one of the one of the most

sobering moments still for that morning is and I tell this to kids I see into you know the churches and stuff I go visit is you know that morning I could remember it was a couple hours after and we're still just you know tailspend don't know what to think or do or anything been it sitting on the couch and we're all crying and upset and don't know what to think and Bennett says, you know, I mean, in tears, he says, you know, this was just supposed to be another normal day. And he said that multiple times, but this was just supposed to be another normal day. And, you know, I think as a society and other people we think of every day, we think it's going to wake up to be just a normal day. Yeah. But obviously for us, you know, that idea of normal will never be again. I mean,

I've got faith that God's going to find a way to bring us to a new place that he wants us to live in that is more useful to him. But the reality of what we were able to live in up to that point, that normal doesn't get to come. We don't get that back. Hey, this is Steve Deast. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God. God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles,

faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this Steve Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Tell us then about the process of figuring out everything that led up to this.

Obviously, you know him and you truly do. It's not like he was a different person behind the scenes, but there was something going on online that you and your wife just didn't know about. So tell us about that discovery process and what it was that ultimately led to this. yeah so obviously there was i mean we went as soon as we called called nalman warren and police showed up and we i mean they went through this room went through everything but i mean the investigators even said themselves you know for somebody that's we're investigating for this type of incident this is one of the cleanest you know crime scene for a lack of better terminology

that they've ever seen you know there's nothing out of plays there's no no red flags of anything Well, you know, we're not really surprised by that. We expect that. I mean, still it didn't give us any answers. So they, obviously, we, I mean, we had walkers. That's a big problem pretty routinely is that people don't, the parents don't have the kids password to get into their phone. We did have walkers.

It was pretty easy to, you know, we kept that tight. So we had his password. So we gave him his password to get into his telephone. They said they were going to download it and start. That was our local law enforcement, start the process. And they had software they pulled that. And so, I mean, but none of that happens fast. I mean, so we really didn't have any awareness of what happened until after the first of the year.

Like I said, that was decent with the first. And after the first year, our local law enforcement said they had found a conversation between Walker and someone on Instagram and thought that that could very easily have been the calls. And we still didn't have any details. We started with the sheriff's department because we're in the case. County that our local police department, the start with police department, they got involved in the case because there were some other instances of extortion that occurred in our city that they were aware of.

And so they wanted to tie that together. And then they brought in the FBI to start evaluating, you know, is this a part of a larger scheme or is this just isolated or what exactly happened? So it was, it was March. I had to go back to my days, but I think it will probably not March. It's probably early February. before we met with the FBI agent that was on the case. And she came to her house.

I mean, I was very impressed with her professionalism and ability to help to this process. And she went through, you know, the conversation that Walker had had with this person with us. And she told us specifically, you know, this was the cause. I mean, there was not anything else, any other evidence that pointed to anything else other than that night. And what's interesting, you know, and it's interesting, again, it's very scary that, you know, that wasn't, I think sometimes it may get portrayed as, you know, a kid is involved in something bigger or doing something under the, you know, that their parents didn't know about. But this all happened one night. This is not something that Walker had been doing for weeks or months or years or anything like that.

Oh, this was all in the span of one evening? One evening. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. I didn't realize that. So about midnight on December of the first, Walker received a message from someone on Instagram, pretending to be a young girl.

And the message was just, hey, what's up, you know? And Walker replied and said, hey, nothing just hanging out. And so that conversation kind of goes back and forth. They reference that they're friends with somebody else that Walker knows. You know, a friend that he is, somebody that, you know, he's friends with for school. And they do that for credibility. And this is a scam. I mean, this is the best way I can describe it.

It's a scam. But it brings about consequences for the people that are being scammed way greater than the money that they're trying to scam out of people. So anyway, they kind of exchanged back and forth, just very casual conversation. like two high school kids where you go to school looks like you play football has football season going just very typical

conversation that finally leads to a conversation of how do you want to fool around and Walker says well what do you mean it's like let's open a video chat

in Instagram which is basically a FaceTime portal through the messaging center in Instagram and Walker And that leads to a sexual encounter between Walker and what he believes is a 15, 16, 17-year-old girl. Very attractive girl. And so that lasts for a while.

And then once as soon as that's over with, I'm knowing to Walker, they were recording him with another device from the other side of that connection, which was originating from Nigeria. and we later found. Wow. And in that conversation, you know, you, I always kind of stop there because I want people not think about you, me. I mean, all of us as adults, especially, and even, you know, teenagers that may be listening to this. I mean, just imagine yourself in the most compromising, most embarrassing scenario where you and us, all of us, have found ourselves in. And what if that, I mean, for us, it's been kept a situation. secret, right? It's been kept to where the general public and the people we love and care about

can't see it. But in that moment, Walker realized that that moment that you and I could imagine was real and it was in the hands of somebody that wanted to cause him harm. And I can't imagine that fear. I mean, we were talking about fear a while ago and that's really, you know, the driving force of this is there was a fear there and that fear of Walker was, you know, what are people going to say? what are people going to do? And it wasn't good enough for Walker's imagination to wonder what people are going to do. That conversation starts now is very adversarial. I mean, they say, hey, we've got this video of you.

They send it to him. We've got this video of you. And if you don't give us $1,000, we're going to send it to everybody that you know. I can only imagine Walker's fear at that point. But that goes back and forth. Walker says, I don't have any money. please leave me along. You know,

this is dumb. I'm not doing this. Well, that goes, I mean, they continue to build this mountain of anxiety in front of Walker. And,

you know, we're going to destroy your life. We're going, I mean, they're telling him, you know, what, how people are going to react.

If Walker didn't already anticipate that, they're telling him, hey, everybody that you love is going to hate you. Nobody's going to forgive you. I mean, they're just piled it on, you know.

And finally, they get to where, Walker's saying, I don't have any money. I live in the country. I don't have anywhere to go get money. I'm 15 years old. Even though he was 16, I'm 15 years old. They said, well, still the money from your mom and dating.

Because I can't do that. They said, well, if you don't get us the money, we're sending the videos. And eventually they start sending him screenshots of their messaging side of Instagram where they're showing him that they're sending the videos to people in his list. Walker didn't know it, but they weren't sending the videos. They were just showing him that they were sending the videos trying to scare him to pay the money. He's thinking this is really happening. Yeah. Yeah, they're sending the videos. And now this that I fear, I mean, it wasn't like a lot of these schemes.

They try to, they try to play it out as long as they can to try to get the money. That's not what was going on here. These people were really more of a short term. I know I'm going to get the money or I'm going to really put the pressure as hard as we can to get the money as fast as we can. And so Walker is trying to fight that off. Well, he's seeing now that these videos are being sent. And I know that that fear of what if this gets out is now transition to, you know, this is going to get out. And it's already out. And how am I going to face tomorrow with everything that I love, everybody that I love, and the importance of how people view me and the respect that I have for people and

especially adults and friends. I can only imagine where his mind went at that point. So finally, finally they get to, it looks like they're going down that list alphabetically is what it looks like. The list of his followers or friends. And they've, I mean, they've obviously done some kind of research, but it looks, because they get to my wife's name is Courtney. And they get to her name.

And they put that message in there that he's been sent to his mom. and, you know, Walker replies, I'm just going to kill myself. And, I mean, that's what he says to him. He says, I'm going to kill myself then. And, you know, their response wasn't, hey, don't do that. We'll get the money tomorrow.

Hey, we'll stop. We really, really didn't send the video. We will, though, if you don't get us the money. What, anything like that. It was just, they had realized by this point they weren't getting paid, at least that night, you know, they realized they weren't. being paid that night.

So now it's a matter of let's inflict as much damage as we can. So their response was, go ahead, because you're already dead anyway. And I tell that for people to understand how little regard to human lives these people have, they're evil. They're pure evil.

They don't care. It's all about, and you could say it's all about the money, but at this point they realize they're not getting the money. So they could have led, they could have chosen. reason to let up and realize, okay, this is, we've pushed it as hard as we can push it. Let's back up because we're not going to get the money, but that's not what they do.

They continue to apply pressure and had this just complete lack of regard. Yeah. I mean, it really is steel. It really is steel, kill, destroy. I mean, it is the worst and most blatant form of the thief, Satan, taking a victim and doing what he does all in one night, stealing, killing, destroying. Yeah. Well, and he, you know, it's very difficult to separate the reaction.

There's spiritual component of this. I shouldn't say it's very difficult. It just has to be a constant reminder. The spiritual component of what Satan thought he was doing that night and then the people that were involved. Because, I mean, it's very similar, Satan is in one context, very, very important. similar to how God operates. Satan operates through people and God does too. So, you know, we're sitting here seeing this, you know, these people that are occupied by Satan, by, you know,

this spiritual fight that we're in. And that's, we shouldn't be surprised by their lack of empathy because they really have no capacity to love. They have no capacity to forgive. They have no capacity to have regard to human life. But Walker, At that point, at some point, we're not exactly sure that. We know that conversation went on from about midnight to about 2 o'clock in the morning. He comes downstairs, goes into my office and goes into my safe and takes a handgun, goes back up to his room, and at some point, he takes his own life. And so I can't emphasize enough.

the reality of this all happened before midnight of December the first, Walker was 100% just like your 16-year-old kid. He's just a normal 16-year-old. And we were living a life that was our best life that we could have never in a million years imagined this happening. them. But we, I allowed, I allowed a risk to exist in my family. And that was technology that, you know, these phones and everything's not, I mean, I'm not that guy that says we just need to put them, throw them away.

I mean, God's perception of this world included the technology we have today. When he created the world at the very beginning, all the same capabilities we're here in day one as they are today, except we know how to use them now. This is not a surprise to God. This is not some, he woke up today and said, what I'm going to do with the Internet. But as parents, I did not understand the risk that came along with the technology I was lying my son to have in his bedroom that night. Bottom line. So I've seen you say, give a recommendation to other parents, don't allow your children to be alone with the first.

phone in their bedroom, especially at night. So not that I'm trying to get you to go back and, you know, work out all of your regrets and what ifs, but, you know, just for the sake of warning other parents, like, what would you have done differently? Like, what kind of regulations or restrictions or boundaries do you think parents should have in place to at least try as much as they can to prevent something like this from happening? Yeah, so the reality today, you know, if I could if I could go back, I mean, you know, that comes back to us to a spiritual question too. But I mean, just the reality of very practical safeguards, there's not anything good that happens from 10 o'clock at night till 6 o'clock the next morning. There's there's not a reason if our kids can't communicate with their friends during the day from normal business hours, so to speak.

there's nothing that's going to happen between 10 and 6 that is that necessary that they need their phone with them in their bedrooms. And especially for young men. So we're talking about 13, probably even a little younger than that now, but at least 12, 13 through 18. The access to information and to, I mean, specifically pornography on a cell phone, as a 16-year-old, I can remember if I'd have had to. full access to unlimited content that looked that way and it was that vivid and was that real and what's real um i know what i would have been doing and most other men if they were being honest would admit to think to the same thing um and so the the difference is that the reason that much of us don't is men don't don't provide more conversations with our sons about that is because we can look

back and say well it really didn't hurt us that bad i mean we would we would look at magazines and other things. And it wasn't, it led to a warp perception of how we view a relationship with our wife and a warp perception of how we viewed women, which is all bad. But it didn't lead to what we're talking about here. And so what we're talking about here is a world where the worst predators on this planet can have access to our kids. That wasn't, that wasn't a dirty magazine. Okay. So I didn't understand that as well as I should have. And so back to your original question, I mean, there is nothing in this world that would be unreasonable about a mother and father having oversight over technology over their kids, especially as long as they're in their home and they're paying the bill. So if I could go back, I would say between 10 and the next morning, the phone comes in my room and I'm going to observe some of the things you're looking at.

Now, I will tell you that in this world of technology today, that's a difficult task, even if a parent wants to do it. We're learning that it's very intentional that tech companies and these device manufacturers don't want parents to be involved in their kids' content. They want to keep us from seeing what they're looking at because they want straight, direct access to our kids so they can persuade them in their own persuasions. And some of that's due to just pure, I want to push a narrative. some of it is strictly around economic access. And so back to that question, what would I do? I mean, parental oversight is a necessity in this world. We're living in today.

There's too many things that can reach our kids and too many messages that you don't want your kids to hear about through that device. That would be something that I would have done more aggressively if I don't know the dangers. Yeah. And so now we're working hard. to try to find ways to support legislation, to require tech companies to, I mean, you know, I say, was it unreasonable?

Would it have been unreasonable for Instagram to not allow an IP address originating from Nigeria that anybody could have looked at, any adult could have looked at with any kind of, you know, tech background and seeing that it was a fraudulent account from accessing my son's, my son directly message. You might be my son's direct message without passing that through me. That's not unreasonable at all. But right now, that's a fight. So we're working hard to try to figure out ways to fix that. And so the FBI looks into this, looked into this story, obviously revealed to you, this is exactly what happened. Is there not, I mean, is there any criminal liability here? The people who scammed your son are they going to face?

And he charges, any consequences for pushing him to commit suicide? You know, the FBI is very confident that if they find somebody, they're going to charge him. The question remains whether or not we ever find them. I mean, that's another aspect of the Internet is it's been created in such a way that you can perpetrate crimes. And there's almost, it's very difficult to track them. So today, we're still optimistic. I mean, put it that way, without going to a ton of detail of what the FBI is doing and not doing. A lot of it, I don't know.

I just know that they're working, and they're working with the Nigerian government to try to bring these people to justice. And the reality is, Walker's not the only one. I mean, you couldn't believe now that I've been, you know, in these conversations. I mean, this week, I've had three calls from parents. three calls this week that have messaged me through Facebook or a connection through a podcast I've done and sent them to me of parents who's in the majority of it is young men. Yep. You know, three different occasions this week of young men that have been extorted and they're

trying to figure out what to do. Yeah. This is not, this is not easy spot. It's not easy to prevent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was a similar story that CNN.

reported last year from May 22 there was a boy 17 years old just a very similar story here straight a straight a student boy scout one of those guys again seemed to come from a great family had it all together um from san jose and same kind of thing a girl seemingly on instagram you know asked to exchange photos they did and then asked for five thousand dollars and he actually ended up being able to transfer the money to her. And that's the thing. It's not enough. He transferred the money and then he actually emptied his college savings, transferred

all of them to this girl and still, you know, they didn't let up because it seems like going back to something that you said that it's not really about the money. Like it's about the destruction. It's about the life ruining. And this young boy, again, he also died by suicide. So as you're saying, this is common. It's destructive. The point is destruction. The point is to ruin lives. And do you think that parents, even if they have restrictions on their children and even if they have as much oversight as possible, do you think that they should be having these kind of proactive conversations with their daughters and sons to say, look, here's what a scammer looks like? Don't ever send these kind of photos. Or like, what do you think that kind of, proactive interaction between parents and teens should look like when it comes to this. Yeah, absolutely. So what I've seen and what we're finding is, so I'll give you another example. So I spoke to a dad. It's been a month ago or so now. He had, right after I did that Fox News

interview, he brought his son in and said, hey, look, this is what's going on. This is what you need to be watching for. Be careful of this. And this is what's happening. This was a town not far from where we live. So, I mean, it was somebody, you know, we were obviously local to him, local enough that he was a, it was a very local example that he could give his son. Well, that was say on a Tuesday, had that conversation. Well, by Saturday morning, he and his wife were gone to town and the son is at home and he falls for the scam. And once he falls for it, he goes and gets him $500. He pays them. They want $500 more. Well, he remembers, you know, the conversation his dad have with you know about us and he he at least recognizes that he's in enough trouble to call

his dad and say hey dad i'm i'm in big trouble and um you know that's a win i know a lot of parents the parents i'm talking to you know they're they're distraught don't know what to do don't know what's going to happen if the content gets out but understand that that is a win and so i've told to that i said you have no idea what i would give for that opportunity you have to make this as an as an as a learning experience for your son. This is not the last mistake he's going to make. This is it. I mean,

he's sitting there walking around with something in his pocket every day, that telephone that is filled with opportunities to make mistakes. So to answer your question, you know, what I hope happens is that parents, if nothing else, just show them if it's an interview like this, if it's a podcast,

it's me on my Facebook page somewhere, show them somewhere. And this is a good lead into this conversation because I tell kids, you know, the ideal scenario is you don't step in the trap because Walker stepped right in the middle of the trap he got as deep into it as he could get and that's the thing I think you know the way this is described so many times is we

the sex orsonist they want them to exchange pictures and that is the case sometimes and that's problematic but I want people to understand that for the majority of these it's not pictures it's a video it was a video of Walker okay and the video was not good. If you could imagine what the video was, he was on his side of the connection. And I don't want to get too far into the deep water on that, but I want people to really understand.

This is not a simple picture of Walker nude. It's really embarrassing. This is explicit. And so it's not like we were in our generation that you could, if you were caught doing something, you could deny it or whatever. Yeah. This is beyond that.

This is, and this induced, fear that I can imagine, really, I can try to imagine because what if all of a sudden as a professional as somebody that is running a business and a family and involved in church and all those people that are looking to you to have a higher standard, all of a sudden they see this. What's that going to do to me tomorrow if I wake up to that? That's what Walker was faced with. That's what these kids are faced with. So the fear that it induces is something more than just a picture. And so the conversations needs to be that kids, look, this is something that is very serious

and that you could fall for very easily. I tell boys, I tell them when I go to the schools, I tell them, I say, look, boys, your blind spot is that you have a physical need for sex. You do. Girls, you have a need for attention and people telling you're valued and affirmation. That's your blind. spot. And so what they're doing with the girls is, they're extorting them for content. So once they get them hooked, they're recorded, because that's what we expect Walker was

looking at. We think Walker was looking at it is at a video of a girl that had been extorted. And so the girls are paying by supplying them with content and the boys have to pay them money. So it's a trap. But this is, you know, this is, I tell people, this is the trap of today, you know, in a year, maybe we get our hands around this. Maybe we, you know, get to the point we can prosecute some people and slow it down. But right now, the only defense that we have is awareness. That is it. Your kids have got to know this is there and you got they've got to know. And it's rampant right now. Well, the fact that you and your wife, that y'all are still standing, that y'all are still here after enduring the worst tragedy that I think any parent can

possibly imagine that in itself is, I think, a miracle of God. And then that you are also going into the pain that I'm sure would be easier to just kind of shut away. And you are sharing that with the world and the hopes that you will help other parents avoid this pain. That, I think, is a testament just to the power of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Lord to be able to redeem seemingly irredeemable situations to make beauty out of ashes to intend for good something that Satan only intended for evil. God is in the business of redemption. Satan hates that. And so I'm very appreciative of you for being obedient in that. But I want to hear some, like, how has this been from a spiritual perspective, from a faith perspective? I'm sure that there are moments that it's not

just like, you know, thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to share with other parents. I'm sure that there are some really dark moments, but if you could give some encouragement to parents who have either gone through this or maybe their child died by suicide for another reason, whatever it is, but there are a lot of parents who have been through a similar situation of loss. How have you worked through this as a Christian? Yeah. So, I mean, I would tell you that, you know, my faith has been all over the board. You know, and I think there, I mean, I think there's a, when I say all over the board. I think it's a matter of, you know, I've got a question. Okay, the number one question is, God, you could have, you could have, no doubt. I mean, this is the same God we serve, that

if he's able to handle my salvation for eternity, he's able to stop Walker from pulling the, pulling the, pulling the truck on that gun. But he chose not to. And he chose not to for a reason. And that reason is ultimately for our good somehow. I know that this temporary separate from Walker, he is temporary. But in the meantime, what Satan did is he didn't, he don't under, he don't, he may not realize he did, but God's got a plan, not because I've got some special strength or anything else, but through us, God is going to bring some people to himself that he wouldn't have otherwise.

And we know that. But that is, you know, some days that's comforting. Some days it's not. Some days it's I don't really care. I just won't walk her back. And really, to be honest, every day, if I just won't walk her back. But you come to a quick reality that that's not going to happen. And so this is our reality.

And inherently, I was speaking for myself and my wife as personally. We're fighters. If I could, I'd be in Nigeria fighting somebody, but I can't. And I understand that the fight is not with people. with Satan. It's with a spiritual fight. And God's, God comes across, people think about God in the Bible is, is this, and he is, he's this loving, forgiving, meek God. But when he comes back, he's coming back with a sword. He's not coming back as a lamb. Yes. And I see that fight that we have in front of us. And it is with a spirit, it is a spiritual fight. And the only way to fight that

is with love and helping other people see that I don't want you to fall into this, but take it serious. You know, it's, yeah, from a spiritual perspective, just knowing that God is right there with us every step, he tells us not to be afraid, tells us to be courageous and continue to fight this fight, and that's what we plan to do. Yes, and amen. We talk a lot about Psalm 37, and that's always a comfort to me, whenever I'm considering just, you know, personal evil, you know, in our own lives or just

the public evil that we see kind of ravaging our country is that God is not doing nothing. That as you said, one day he will come back and he will repay all of the evil that has been done. He will do away with all of the wicked and the evil doers. He will come back with a vengeance. And one day he will take care of all of it. and we can rest secure in that. In the meantime, he has this incredible ability to redeem the darkest and the most depraved things

that happen here on earth somehow in some kind of mysterious way for his glory. So I'm thankful that you're willing to share your story and gosh, I was touched by your ability to be able to share it. And I know the other parents will be too. I also just want to give people, we're going to link in the description of this episode. The DOJ, they have a list of kind of do's and don'ts when it comes to finding yourself or your child finding themselves in a situation of sexortion, the things that you're supposed to do as a process and not do.

And so we're going to link that just so people have that resource. but is there any other resources that you would recommend that people can connect to just for more information about this? Yeah, I mean, not really as it relates to extortion. I would tell them that's a great resource you just described. There's a, should be a 1-800 number to call on there for help. If you're in that situation and need help, I know of a kid that actually called that number and it, you know, is what saved him.

you know and so definitely in that scenario do that if you would go through my Facebook page it's just Brian Montgomery on Facebook I was got a message on there from Walker's funeral you know it's a salvation message if people don't know Christ and they want to understand where that hope comes from that's that's on there and we're planning on in the near future starting a nonprofit to start promote safe online activities for kids and try to figure out ways to hopefully promote legislation, support legislation, and give parents some tools to try to help them start to come alongside their kids because we've crossed a, we've crossed a line in the sand,

so to speak, of the dangers that we're facing. And I mean, it's kind of like at some point in time this country to agree that there need to be a age limit on drinking alcohol. And, you know, there was a time, I'm sure, where there wasn't, there wasn't the case. And so I feel like we've that point. Nobody wants to acknowledge it and admit it because we're all addicted to it. But we've got to admit it. We've got to figure that out or else with some of the technologies coming down the line with AI and some of the things that are about to happen. If we don't get our hands around this, our culture is going to have a major shift and we're not going to be happy with the outcome. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thanks for your advocacy.

I really appreciate it. And thank you for taking the time to come on today. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate you. I don't. Thanks. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Alley, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles,

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