TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube Used for Sextortion, Study Says

A new study from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) revealed that financial sextortion materials are gaining immense reach within North America and Australia using TikTok, YouTube, and other online platforms.

The perpetrators use social media to teach other people how to catch clients, extort victims, and more.

Financial Sextortion Training on Social Media

According to the report, the majority of financial sextortion is held by a non-organized cybercriminal group in West Africa, called Yahoo Boys. NCRI managed to detect the training materials using Instagram, Snapchat, and Wizz.

The Yahoo Boys gained popularity by releasing materials that teach others to get rich quickly in West Africa. NCRI researchers found dozens of tutorial videos on TikTok and YouTube, detailing how to engage in sextortion by simply using the hashtag #YahooBoys.

The organization also found scripts on Scribd that could be used to coerce their victims to pay using similar terms. NCRI analysis revealed that the documents from the site had reached more than 500,000 times.

Rise of Financial Sextortion

NCRI senior intelligence analyst, Paul Raffle, shared that sextortion has been causing a significant number of deaths in the U.S. Most of the time, boys and young men are targeted which sometimes leads victims to commit suicide.

Last year, two Nigerian men faced sextortion charges after a 17-year-old Michigan high school student committed suicide. In addition, another Nigerian man faced allegations of using Yahoo Boys tactics and wired fraud of $2.5 million.

During sextortion, the criminals would often promise to delete or stop spreading the photos if the victim sends money through Venmo, CashApp, Zelle, Bitcoin, or gift cards.

Meanwhile, linked social media companies have finally removed the videos after NCRI reached out and shared the videos that are spreading on their platforms. The organization is recommending that the apps should have a "dedicated reporting option so people can report threats to share private images."