What broke my heart was how sad his father was when I told him, he said he trusted the son the most.
At eighteen, the boy is an adult and would take full responsibility for his actions and inactions. Parents indeed need to closely monitor their children's activities online, but at that age, it will be very difficult to watch over that boy. This child simply chose to be a criminal, maybe he was influenced by friends or other agents of socialisation.
children or young adult do not just jump from nowhere into becoming criminal. they go stage by stage from little criminal initiative and when they go uncaught they device other means they can use in stealing in the cyber space or even in the digital space. if you train your child well, even at 20, they will never depart from what you have thought them to commit theft or cybercrime in the society. a child that at 18 is already scamming people is most time a product of a failed parent who did not pay close attention to her child till external influence has made that child an hardened individual. the society works in this simple way, train your child well and you have saved yourself a lot but fail to train your child and the society will help you do so because either way, they must learn from a source.