Most scammers and cybercriminals operate in the digital shadows and don't want you to know how they make their money. But that's not the case with the Yahoo Boys, a group of young West African men who are some of the most prolific and increasingly dangerous scammers on the web.
A WIRED analysis found that thousands of people were members of dozens of Yahoo Boy groups operating on Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram. Scammers, who collectively commit fraud worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year, also have dozens of accounts on TikTok, YouTube and document-sharing service Scribd, racking up thousands of views.
There is a lot of fraud activity inside the group, with cybercriminals often showing their faces and sharing their scam methods with other members. They publicly distribute scripts detailing how to blackmail people and run sexual exploitation scams that drive people to suicide, sell albums containing hundreds of photos, and advertise fake social media accounts. Some of the scams are using AI to create fake ‘nude’ images of people and even make real-time deepfake video calls.
Yahoo Boys do not disguise their activities. Many groups use “Yahoo Boys” in their name and other related terms. WIRED's analysis found 16 Yahoo Boys Facebook groups with a total membership of about 200,000, 12 WhatsApp channels, 10 Telegram channels, 20 TikTok accounts, 12 YouTube accounts and more than 80 scripts on Scribd. . And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
In general, the company does not allow content that promotes or promotes criminal activity on its platform. Most of the Yahoo Boys accounts and groups identified by WIRED were deleted after contacting the company about the apparent existence of the groups. Despite this removal, dozens of Yahoo Boys groups and accounts remain online.
“They’re not hiding under any other name,” says Kathy Waters, co-founder and executive director of Advocating Against Romance Scammers, a nonprofit group that has been tracking Yahoo Boys for years. Waters said the social media companies were essentially giving the Yahoo Boys “free office space” to organize and conduct their activities. “They are selling scripts, photos, identities, etc. all online, on social media platforms,” she says. “The reason this account still exists is beyond me.”
The Yahoo Boys are not a single, organized group. Instead, they are a collection of thousands of scammers working individually or in clusters. Based in Nigeria, their name is a reference to previous targeting of users of Yahoo services and includes links to past Nigerian Prince email scams. Groups in West Africa can be organized into a variety of entities, often cult gangs.
“Yahoo is a body of knowledge that can be used to perpetrate fraud,” says Gary Warner, director of intelligence at DarkTower and director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Computer Forensics Institute. The level of sophistication among Yahoo Boys varies, but many simply work on their phones, Warner says. “Most of these threat actors are only using one device,” he says.
Yahoo Boys have committed dozens of scams, from dating scams to business email compromises. When contacting potential victims, they often “bomb” people with hundreds of messages on their dating app accounts or Facebook profiles. “They’ll say anything they can to get the next dollar in their pocket,” Waters says.
When you search for Yahoo Boys on Facebook, you'll see two warnings. Both say the results may be linked to fraudulent activity, which is not permitted on the website. Clicking on the warning reveals a Yahoo Boy group with thousands of members. One group had over 70,000 people.
In groups, with posts selling SIM cards and albums containing hundreds of photos, many scammers direct people to other messaging platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegram on Meta. Here the Yahoo Boys are at their boldest. Some groups and channels on both platforms receive hundreds of posts a day and are part of a wider web of operations.
After WIRED contacted Facebook about the 16 groups we identified, the company removed them and deactivated some WhatsApp groups. “Scammers use every platform available to scam people and constantly adapt to avoid getting caught,” says Meta spokesperson Al Tolan. It didn't directly mention which accounts were deleted or which ones would be easy to find. “It is against our policy to intentionally exploit others for money, and we take action as soon as we become aware of this,” says Tolan. “We continue to invest in technology and work with law enforcement to prosecute fraudsters. We also actively share tips on how people can protect themselves and their accounts and avoid scams.”
The group on Telegram was removed after WIRED sent a message to the company's public relations office. However, the platform did not respond as to why it was removed.
Across all types of social media, Yahoo Boys scammers share “scripts” they use to socially manipulate people. These scripts can be thousands of words long and can be copied and pasted to other victims. Many people have been online for years. “I’ve seen scammers go through 30 to 60 layers of script before they actually have to think about what to say,” says Ronnie Tokazowski, chief fraud prevention officer at Intelligence for Good, which works with victims of cybercrime. . “It’s 100% how they manipulate people,” Tokazowski says.
Among the many scams, they pretend to be military officers, people offering to “hook up,” the FBI, doctors, and people looking for love. One “good morning” script contains about a dozen messages that a scammer can send to their target. “In a world full of deception and lies, I feel lucky to see the love in your eyes. Good morning,” one person says. But things get much darker.