Financial Sextortion: A Rising Threat to Public Safety

The increasing menace of financial sextortion is transforming into a public safety crisis that requires immediate action.

Recently, I came across a distressing story on LinkedIn about a young man named Carson who tragically took his own life after becoming a victim of online financial sextortion. Although sextortion is not a new concept and is a social engineering threat I have been tracking for years in the context of corporate cyber risk, it is disturbing to see this public safety crisis increasingly affecting the most susceptible members of society — minors.

Sextortion involves pressuring individuals into sharing explicit content under the threat of their private material being exposed. This crime can originate from any digital platform, and its impact is magnified by global connectivity. NCRI research has uncovered that a group of financially motivated cybercriminals from West Africa, known as the Yahoo Boys, are responsible for almost all financial sextortion cases involving minors.

The Yahoo Boys are responsible for the alarming tenfold increase in sextortion cases over the past 18 months. They have been distributing sextortion guides and scripts on platforms like TikTok and YouTube, thereby motivating other criminals to engage in financial sextortion. These sextortion offenders are inundating…