IN a sparsely decorated living room, seven young men drape themselves over sofas while they tap furiously away into their mobile phones.
It could be a scene from any college common room, but this is actually a flourishing ‘Hustle Kingdom’ – a training centre where young Nigerian men learn the sinister tricks they need to scam unsuspecting British teenagers out of thousands of pounds.
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And what appears to be an ordinary inner city apartment in the capital city Lagos is in fact a hotbed of fraud.
The brains behind the operation is ‘Ghost’ – a confident man in his twenties who describes himself as a “fraud star”.
In a new documentary Blackmailed: The Sextortion Killers, he boasts: “I am the boss of scamming – I’m taking 70, they’re taking 30 per cent.”
While Ghost has seven young men working for him, some Hustle Kingdoms have as many as 50 youths all simultaneously working on scams.
He claims to have over £1million sitting in his crypto wallet from scams and describes his organisation as “a gathering of hustlers – people who are ready to change their financial status”.
Poor performing scammers are punished by losing access to their phone, their clothes and food.
They can be difficult to escape from. One scammer told the documentary he had to “run for his life” to leave.
Journalist Tir Dhondy, who got unprecedented access to the scam school, told The Sun: “When you think of Hustle Kingdoms you kind of have this image of a call centre.
“But no, it’s just ordinary accommodation. Ghost told us they also become homes for a lot of these boys.
“So they offer a roof over your head, money and stability. That is why a lot of them get into it.
“Once we got to Nigeria one of the things that surprised me the most was the scale of the crime.
“We thought it would be hard to find people to talk but we spoke to scammer after scammer after scammer.”
They include Ola, a man in his early twenties, who has been committing cyber crimes since he was a 14-year-old, moving on to sextortion in his late teens.
He said: “They first taught me how to do romance scams, and then we went into blackmailing. We open a social media account using female names from fake name generators.”
I don’t feel bad. Because I need the money. I have been suffering for a long time so I don’t care if anyone else is suffering
Ola
Ola then uses pictures of porn stars to create social media profiles on Facebook Dating, Instagram and SnapChat – with the latter preferred for his younger victims.
Shockingly, he admits that his targets are often “young kids” – in particular, teenage boys.
He uses a copy and paste script for most of the journey, sharing with the documentary the explicit-laden messages he sends to try and solicit naked images.
It starts: “I’m just laying in my bed, naked and horny right now, lol, will you really help me out?” He then instructs the victim to send a nude image in front of the mirror.
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Once a picture is sent, the messages turn nasty. Ola tells his victim that he will share the photo “to all your friends and family and to all social media” – and warns them that they won’t be able to get a job once it’s released.
He said: “If he refuses to give me, let me say $200, then I will post the picture to his work office or his school.
“Once they have completed the amount you agreed then you can say to them I am not satisfied with the amount you paid. So I need a certain amount again – you could tell them $4,000.
“If you don’t have the money in full you can pay the money weekly.
“I don’t feel bad. Because I need the money. I have been suffering for a long time so I don’t care if anyone else is suffering.”
Tir added: “A lot of the men we interviewed, the main notable thing is that they just show such little remorse for their victims and they don’t think about the fact that a lot of these young boys are committing suicide.
“I said to them that a lot of these young boys are committing suicide and they kind of shrugged it off. There is quite a brutal manner to it and they don’t seem to be sorry for their actions in any way.”
Heartbreaking suicides
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Nigeria has become the leading country for cyber crime in Africa. Known as ‘Yahoo Boys’, many scammers have amassed a significant fortune and gained widespread notoriety by showing off their wealth and criminally-earned lifestyles on social media.
And after years of romance fraud against women, these criminals have a new target – children and teenagers.
In the UK, the National Crime Agency receives 110 reports of sextortion every month against kids and teens.
The Safer Internet Centre notes that most sextortion reports to its helpline come from young men aged 18–34.
A lot of the men we interviewed, the main notable thing is that they just show such little remorse for their victims and they don’t think about the fact that a lot of these young boys are committing suicide
Tir
Sadly, there has been a spate of suicides associated with the crime. In the US, sextortion has been connected to at least 30 deaths of teen boys by suicide since 2021.
In Britain, at least five men and boys have killed themselves after falling victims to sextortion.
They include Murray Dowey, from Dunblane, who ended his life in 2023 aged just 16 after being blackmailed by Nigerian scammers.
And the fraudsters are increasingly turning to sophisticated technology to trick their victims.
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Dark AI tricks
Back in Lagos, Temi – who preys on his young targets on Instagram and Snapchat – has paid $3,500 for AI software that can turn a still image into video.
As his assistant, Rachel, sits in front of the camera, the technology is able to project the face of a western woman on to her own.
It’s a valuable tool that helps lull his victims into a false sense of security.
Speaking about his targets, Temi says: “The way I find them – I just go on Instagram and look for people that are not Nigerian – like Australia, UK or US.”
And when it comes to the amount of people he scams, he says: “I have no limits. Whoever replies, you ask them, ‘Are you into something naughty?’ Can we get into something naughty?”
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Former Meta worker Arturo Béjar, who worked on user safety before leaving in 2021, tells the documentary that the issue of sextortion is relatively simple to solve.
He said: “It’s not a money issue and it’s not impossible to stop. As you know the Yahoo Boys operate from a script.
“It’s disgraceful that there’s not a classifier that looks at the chat and notices the script and immediately protects and then goes and eradicates every account that’s associated with it.
“Because that’s what you can do when you work on these issues at scale.
“If Mark Zuckerberg woke up tomorrow morning and said, ‘Under no circumstances do I want any of this on Instagram,’ it would take three to six months for it to be eradicated.”
In a statement, Meta told the documentary: “The suggestion that Meta could eradicate sextortion but chooses not to is simply untrue.
“We work aggressively to fight it by disrupting networks of scammers and supporting law enforcement.”
Blackmailed: The Sextortion Killers on BBC Three at 9pm on Sunday October 5 and BBC iPlayer.
Who are the Yahoo Boys?
The Yahoo Boys are gangs of mainly young Nigerians who engage in mass online scams.
They contact their victims posing as attractive young girls – often using AI images – and lure them into sending illicit pictures.
Experts have labelled their methods a “public health epidemic.”
They live lives of luxury with designer clothes, flash cars and expensive jewellery.
They flash piles of cash on social media and show off Mercedes cars and £1000 Balenciaga trainers in ‘Hustle Kingdoms’ – posh hotel rooms.
They earned the nickname Yahoo-boys back in the days of Yahoo accounts when they first tried to scam people.
At least three UK teenagers have died by suicide after being threatened through sextortion – and now Nigerian-based tricksters are using artificial intelligence to improve their sick methods.
Meta recently cracked down on the twisted gangs who lure victims into sending explicit images before blackmailing them for cash.
More than 63,000 Yahoo Boy accounts have been shut down on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The Sun recently revealed the scripts used by scammers who offer to teach other people their evil methods.
The most popular guides are readily available on TikTok, according to the experts.
Dan Sexton, chief technology officer at the Internet Watch Foundationsaid: “This is a public health epidemic.
“It’s a damning indictment of online safety that it is easy enough and profitable enough to target children and young people online. It appears to be a legitimate business strategy by criminals.”