Brandon Guffy: Coercive Control and Sextortion

A Little Bit Culty

Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames

True Crime, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Online sextortion scams are on the rise, targeting young victims—especially teen boys—by coercing them into sharing explicit images, then blackmailing them into silence. These predators use fear, humiliation, and intimidation to trap their victims, often with devastating consequences.

Our guest today, South Carolina Representative Brandon Guffey, knows this horror firsthand. In 2022, his 17-year-old son, Gavin, fell victim to sextortion and tragically took his own life. Since then, Brandon has dedicated his life to raising awareness, passing Gavin’s Law to make sextortion a felony in South Carolina, and fighting for accountability from tech giants like Meta. Through his nonprofit, Less Than Three, he works to educate families, protect young people, and prevent future tragedies.

This conversation is both heartbreaking and urgent. If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available 24/7. Call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support.

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of suicide, coercion, and online exploitation. Listener discretion is advised.

UPDATE: Since this episode was recorded, the alleged scammer, Hassanbunhussein Abolore Lawal, has been extradited to the U.S. and is currently in custody awaiting trial.

Also… let it be known that:

The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

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CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

Production Partner: Amphibian.Media

Writer & Co-Creator: Jess Tardy

Associate producers: Amanda Zaremba and Matt Stroud of Amphibian.Media

Audio production: Red Caiman Studios

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Transcript

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0:29.7	This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical,
0:34.0	medical, or mental health advice. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast and are not intended to malign any
0:41.5	religion group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone, or anything.
0:55.8	I'm Sarah Edmondson.
0:57.6	And I'm Anthony Nippy Ames.
1:00.3	And this is A Little Bit Calti.
1:01.9	Cults are commonplace now.
1:04.3	From fandums to fads, we're examining them all.
1:08.6	We look at what happens when things that seem like a great thing at first go bad.
1:12.0	Every week we chat with survivors, experts, and whistleblowers for real culty stories told directly by the people who lived through them, because we want
1:16.7	you to learn a few things that we've had to learn the hard way. For example, if you think you're
1:21.3	too smart to get sucked into something culty, you might be prime recruitment material, and who
1:25.7	knows, you could already be in a cult.
1:28.2	If you're not aware of your programming, you're probably being programmed.
1:31.4	So keep listening to find out.
1:33.2	We'll talk about all sorts of topics on the show, but be aware.
1:36.7	This podcast might contain stories that could be alarming to some of our listeners.
	...

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