Featured Image Credit: BBC
Topics: Crime, Mental Health, Technology
Jess Battison
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide and other material which may disturb some readers.
A new documentary from the BBC sees a scammer revealing the explicit script he sends to child victims.
As cases of sextortion scams rise, reporter Tir Dhondy came face-to-face with the ‘Yahoo Boys’ in Nigeria, who are taking part in these horrific crimes.
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Defined as a type of online blackmail by the Metropolitan Police, sextortion sees victims targeted by scammers pretending to be someone else and encouraging them to send nude photos of themselves. Once these are then shared, they are typically then threatened into paying large sums of money.
While anyone can become a victim, children aged between 15 to 17 and adults under 30, are said to most commonly be at risk. And in a new BBC doc, we are introduced to the parents of 16-year-old Evan Boettler who took his own life within just 90 minutes of becoming a victim.
As Dhondy attempts to track down his scammer, she confronts young men in Lagos where the many of the notorious Yahoo Boys are based with ‘Hustling Kingdoms’ set up as they work under self-titled ‘bosses of scamming’.
Not all of the scammers she meets take part in sextortion, with one saying it’s because he’s ‘of God’, but these are the same kind of people who are behind those cases of women thinking they’re going out with Brad Pitt.
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But Blackmailed: The Sextortion Killers does introduce us to ‘Ola’, who explains to Dhondy exactly how he carries out his sextortion scams, who he targets, and why.
Now in his early 20s, he’s described as having done cybercrime since he was 14, and having pivoted into sextortion in his late teens.
With people making tens of thousands (and even supposed millions in some cases) through these crimes, Ola explains he simply sets up a social media account using ‘female names from fake name generators’.
He says they use photos from profiles belonging to ‘porn models’, before identifying victims using various social media.
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Ola says the scammers target young boys in particular as their ‘sex drive is so high’ and are ‘scared of the picture being released’ to people they know. Once he’s got his target, the scammer has a format of messages that he copies and pastes.
“I’m just laying in my bed, naked and horny right now, lol, will you really help me out?” it reads. “I want you to stand at the front of a mirror and you take a mirror snap.”
It then continues: “I want to make my pussy get squirt… Just stand at the front of a mirror and take a mirror snap babe holding your d**k.”
Once those photos have been sent, Ola then has the script to threaten the victims: “I’m going to post your pics all over and your family, neighbours, and friends…
“And I’m gonna make news of your s**t right now.”
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He then can even edit news video headlines using AI, threatening to accuse the victim of sexual harassment as he asks them to send more and more money as blackmail.
Ola tells the reporter he doesn’t ‘feel bad’ because he needs the money.
“I have been suffering for a long time so I don’t care if anyone else is suffering,” he explains.
The scammer claims he doesn’t cause his victims to commit suicide, but Dhondy points out there is no real way for him to know this for sure.
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Earlier this year, the National Crime Agency reported that it was receiving more than 110 reports of child sextortion attempts a month in the UK. And in the US, the FBI announced that the number had more than doubled in the last three years, reaching a high of an estimated 54,935 in 2024.
At least 20 of those ended in suicide.
You can watch Blackmailed: The Sextortion Killers now on BBC iPlayer.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, you can contact Victim Support on 08 08 16 89 111, start a live chat, or visit the website, all of which are available 24 hours seven days a week.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.