The Yahoo boys are a sophisticated group of Nigerian cybercriminals. Their name comes from the email service Yahoo, which became popular in Nigeria in the 2000s. They started using Yahoo email accounts to scam people. Today we discuss a critical and crucial new intelligence threat report from the Network Contagion Research Group. Financial sextortion is the fastest growing crime targeting children in North America—accelerating at an alarming rate, with incidents surging up 1,000% in the past 18+ months. Cybercriminals are using fake social media accounts to coerce victims, almost all of them boys, into sharing an explicit photo. As soon as the criminal receives the photo, they threaten to (and sometimes do) expose the photo to the victim’s friends, family, and followers unless a ransom is paid. These criminals employ ruthless tactics to intimidate their victims, inflicting lasting trauma and immense distress–which has led to teens harming themselves and worse. This new report and investigation unveils previously unreported views into the social media platforms where these criminals share their sextortion scripts, tools, and methods, which has allowed this crime to proliferate at an exponential rate.
