Scammers create fake news videos to blackmail their victims

usually, Yahoo Boy Scammers send hundreds of messages People online pretending to be members of the opposite sex using photos stolen from social media profiles. They carry out all kinds of scams, but for those that involve blackmail, they often try to build a relationship with their potential victim and obtain compromising information – nude photos being the most common. Then they change gears.

“At some point, they reveal their identity after getting everything they need, and then they start blackmailing,” Memon says. They demand money and threaten to post the photos online or send them to family and friends if they are not paid. “One of the methods they use to make sure the blackmail is realistic is to produce these news clips that they send out to the victims, and in a way they push them and get them to pay for the blackmail,” he says. “They’re trying to push you to make decisions under conditions of pressure, under conditions of urgency.”

Yahoo Boy scammers widely use the social media platform Telegram as a way to organize, chat with each other, and as a marketplace where they sell knowledge and tutorials on how to run different types of scams. The “news” videos viewed by WIRED appeared to include details and photos of real-world victims, although it was not possible to immediately verify these cases.

Brian Mason, a cop with the Edmonton Police Service in Canada who investigates fraud and works with victims of scams, says he has seen cases where videos or screenshots of fake CNN broadcasts have been sent to victims. “It sounds like a regular CNN broadcast,” Mason says. “He’s very convincing.” Mason says this approach has been used in… Sex blackmail scamswhich usually targets teenagers and It has been linked to a series of suicides.

Mason says he has witnessed incidents in which news clips falsely accused scam victims of speaking with underage females and that police were searching for them or issued warrants for their arrest. “It makes the victim panic because they now see themselves in this stream, which is a screenshot of when they were actually talking to the scammer from their webcam,” Mason adds. This effect is likely to prompt a person to send money or follow up on scammers’ requests.

Telegram did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment on the extortion operations found in Yahoo Boy’s channels. Last year, Telegram More than a dozen Yahoo Boy channels have been removed After WIRED reported on its public activity; However, scammers are still present on the platform Other social media platformsIncluding Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube.

Messages shared within Telegram channels show how scammers are quick to develop their drawbacks, use new techniques, and share or sell tips widely with each other. For example, when people Switch to the Chinese alternative Rednote Before a proposed ban to ban TikTok in the US earlier this month, Yahoo Boys recommended targeting people who had joined the app.