A 40-year-old Canadian man named Ramanan Pathmanathan has been sentenced to 33 years in federal prison for running an eight-year sextortion scheme that targeted at least 145 children across the United States, some as young as 6 years old. He is also serving a concurrent 12-year sentence in Canada for related offenses.
Pathmanathan used fake social media accounts to pose as a teenage boy from New Jersey, approaching children on Instagram and Facebook Messenger. He would initiate video chats, record victims without their knowledge, and then threaten to share the footage with their families unless the children complied with increasingly harmful demands. Prosecutors say he saved the recordings on his computer and used the threat of exposure as a tool of ongoing control. The sentence is a reminder that predators actively use mainstream social platforms to target young people — and that this kind of abuse can happen to children of almost any age.
How to check if you’re affected
Affected devices include any phone, tablet, or computer children use to access Instagram or Facebook Messenger. If your child has received unexpected contact from a stranger, been asked to video chat, or has seemed distressed after online interactions, take the concern seriously. Talk to them about the warning signs: someone who pushes too quickly for video calls, asks for images, or threatens them online. If a threat has already occurred, contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov — do not pay any demand.