One person playing both sides
Using a prohibited phone in prison, Boyd posed as 18-year-old Jad on Plenty of Fish. He contacted B.G., a 22-year-old Michigan man.
Two days later, Boyd changed the claimed age to 15. Impersonating grandparents, he demanded payment to keep the exchanges from police and B.G.'s family. He also posted accusations about B.G. on Facebook.
B.G. reported the extortion and died by suicide that day. Investigators subsequently used records obtained under a search warrant to identify Boyd.
Sources: U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Michigan — Trial and original sentencing announcement · U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit — United States v. Boyd, No. 25-1590, official opinion via GovInfo
The update that changes the sentencing headline
A jury convicted Boyd of attempted extortion, stalking and five wire-fraud counts. His original sentence was 272 months.
The appeals court ruled that two sentencing enhancements had been wrongly applied and ordered a new sentencing calculation without them. It did not set a replacement term. No subsequent resentencing order was verified for this account as of September 27, 2026; the original term should not be read as a settled current outcome.
Sources: WIS News 10 Staff — Contemporaneous reporting · U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Michigan — Trial and original sentencing announcement · U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit — United States v. Boyd, No. 25-1590, official opinion via GovInfo
When another account is not independent evidence
Our reading of the deception is that the invented relatives gave the demand a second voice without a second person. A familiar profile, an apparent family connection and a threat can all originate with one operator. The question is who controls the accounts, not how many accounts appear to agree.
Our guides explain how to check a dating profile photo and what a phone lookup can tell you. These tools provide limited clues; they cannot authenticate every message or promise safety. Responsibility for the extortion belongs to its perpetrator.
Sources & reporting dates
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