A gang of Nigerian ‘sextortion’ scammers responsible for a number of teenage suicides is still active and advertising its services on TikTok.
The criminals pretend to be women on fake social media profiles to trick men or boys into sharing explicit images or videos with them.
The gang then blackmails their victims by threatening to share the images with friends and family unless they send money or cryptocurrency.
At least three British children and more than 20 in the US have taken their own lives after being blackmailed by evil gangs.
The National Crime Agency – Britain’s FBI – has described ‘sextortion’ as a ‘callous crime’ that destroys lives and issued an unprecedented nationwide alert to schools and parents.
The Yahoo Boys have even started using AI to create so-called ‘deepfakes’ to trick even the most alert internet users
Samuel Ogoshi, 22, Samson Ogoshi, 20 and Ezekiel Ejehem Robert, 19, were extradited to the US from Nigeria over after their alleged involvement in the suicide of an American teenager, Jordan DeMay
Dinal De Alwis, 16, (pictured) had just started sixth form when he killed himself after being blackmailed on social media over nude photographs
Despite concerns raised by politicians and law enforcement a Nigerian gang identified as the main culprits – known as the Yahoo Boys – is still active on TikTok.
The Yahoo Boys are a nebulous group of gangs and nefarious individuals largely based out of Nigeria. Videos show members of the gang posing in front of luxury cars or decked out in designer clothes, flashing piles of money.
The nickname comes from the email service Yahoo, which became popular in Nigeria in the 2000s, and was used alongside other email providers in their scams at that time.
TikTok videos show Yahoo Boys scammers advising others on how to trap victims and showing off houses – called ‘hustle kingdoms’ – they’ve bought using their ill-gotten gains.
The algorithm also helps other would-be scammers find scamming guides and users are pushed videos such as ‘how to collect credit card from client’ and ‘yahoo boys dating formats’.
According to research from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), which works to identify and forecast emerging cyber threats, the Yahoo Boys are increasingly targeting teenagers from Western English-speaking countries via social media platforms.
They are said to send ‘thousands’ of British, American and Canadian youngsters friend requests or messages from fake or hacked female accounts in the hope that a few dozen might respond.
The Yahoo Boys have even started using AI to create so-called ‘deepfakes’ to trick even the most alert internet users.
TikTok videos show Yahoo Boys scammers advising others on how to trap victims and showing off houses, expensive cars and cash
Celebrating sextortion crimes is an established part of the internet subculture in Nigeria, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI)
Members of the Yahoo Boys gang pose beside their luxury cars
Gang members in an ‘office’ in Nigeria from where they lure victims from around the world
Equipment seized from members of the Yahoo Boys gang
An NCRI report stated: ‘Specifically, nearly all financial sextortion attacks on minors involve the screenshotting of the victim’s Instagram followers/following lists and using those lists as leverage, threatening to send the victim’s intimate photos to all these accounts.’
There are many videos posted online of people who are purported to have made vast sums of money from such scams. They flaunt their ill-gotten gains and pass on tips to other would-be crooks.
The NCRI has said that celebrating sextortion crimes is an established part of the internet subculture in Nigeria.
The cyber-criminals use platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat to lure their victims and police, investigators and the families of victims have been calling on the technology companies to combat the scammers.
Dinal De Alwis, 16, a schoolboy from Sutton, south London, took his own life in October 2022 after receiving Snapchat messages threatening to send two nude photographs to all of his followers if he did not send money.
Last December Murray Dowey, 16, from Dunblane, Perthshire, took his life hours after being targeted in a sextortion plot on Instagram. Police Scotland believe those responsible were based in Nigeria.
His family said last month that Meta was not doing ‘nearly enough’ to protect children online.
Murray’s grieving mother Ros Dowey issued a desperate plea to other young victims of the scams. ‘Please don’t do what Murray did. Nothing is worth taking your own life. Nothing,’ she said.
‘No matter how terrified and awful you’re feeling at the moment, that will pass and this can be fixed.’
Murray Dowey, 16, (pictured) took his own life hours after being targeted in a sextortion blackmail plot with potential links to Nigeria
Mark and Ros Dowey said there ‘world has been shattered’ since losing their son Murray
Dinal had been top of Whitgift School in Croydon in English and economics after achieving straight A*s in his GCSEs
Dinal (pictured) killed himself after being blackmailed by a stranger suspected to be in Nigeria claiming to have nude pictures of him
The National Police Chiefs Council has said the tech firms also needed to identify and remove blackmail and grooming messages and verify the ages of children using social media platforms.
In January, Meta started restricting adults from contacting users under 16 who don’t follow them on its apps and expanded parental controls.
The NCRI has been pushing for the company to hide friend lists of teenagers by default to make them less vulnerable to blackmail.
In April, the NCA issued an unprecedented alert to teachers and parents about pupils being targeted in ‘sextortion’ scams.
It warned all 570,000 primary and secondary teachers across Britain that children as young as five are at risk. It was the first time the NCA has issued a national alert to schools and experts say it is urgently needed to stem a ‘sextortion epidemic’.
The NSPCC has also called on Ofcom to take stronger action under the Online Safety Act.
‘It is crucial that Ofcom uses its powers to compel companies to identify suspicious behaviour and profiles which are targeting children so there can be no excuse for failing to protect them from sextortion, or any other form of abuse,’ Rani Govender, online safety policy manager at the NSPCC, told The Times, which first reported the story.
Last week Meta removed 63,000 Instagram accounts, 5,700 groups, 200 pages, and 1,300 accounts on Facebook linked to the Yahoo Boys, it said.
Brandon Guffey, a member of the South Carolina house of representatives, who lost his son Gavin, 17, to sextortion in 2022 said Meta’s move was ‘a step, but a small one’.
He wrote on Facebook: ‘Don’t let Meta make you feel they are doing anything to protect kids online. If they wanted it stopped they could immediately by blocking any and all accounts with CSAM (child sexual abuse material).’
He also said that an account linked to a person who targeted his son sent him a sickening message that said: ‘Did I tell you your son begged for his life?’
Experts have welcomed Meta’s move but said that TikTok must do more to clean up its platform.
Alex Goldenberg, the director of intelligence at NCRI, said TikTok was an ‘enormous problem’ in this area and called on it to take ‘more aggressive actions’ to combat sextortion scammers.
He told The Times: ‘[TikTok] is a medium where Yahoo Boys share best practices. They glorify their activities. They celebrate the wealth that they’ve generated as a byproduct of targeting victims that they refer to as “clients”.’
Figures lay bare the staggering scale of the problem. In 2015, 428 sextortion cases were reported to police, most involving adults.
But the latest figures for online blackmail show 13,322 cases in England and Wales in the year to September 2022. That equates to 36 victims a day.
More than half of cases were closed with no suspect identified because the perpetrators are often overseas.
Investigators say the crimes reported to police are the tip of the iceberg and they believe gangs are making millions of pounds targeting British children.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales found almost one in ten children aged 13 to 15 received a sexual message online in the past year and two thirds of those involved photos.
A TikTok spokesman said: ‘We design TikTok to be inhospitable for those intent on causing harm to teens and we do not tolerate any content or behaviour promoting sextortion.’
■ For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123, visit a branch or go to www.samaritans.org
