Sarah Smith's story highlights the growing threat of sextortion in Britain. After sending a naked image to what she thought was a grieving widower, she was blackmailed into paying £300. Victims, often embarrassed to report the crime, are targeted by Nigerian gangs who exploit vulnerabilities and manipulate emotions. The issue is compounded by fake companies promising to recover lost funds, often linked to the original scammers.
WHEN mum-of-two Sarah Smith sent a naked image of herself to her new ‘lover’ she felt a flush of embarrassment. At 34, she had never dared send anything racy to a man before but, after two months of chatting online, she had noInstagram influencer Hushpuppi, real name is Ramon Abbas, is one of countless fraudsters said to have started out as a 'Yahoo Boy'He had opened his heart to Sarah - not her real name - about how lonely he was after losing his wife in a light aircraft crash in 2016, leaving him to bring up their 12-year-old daughter alone.
Within minutes of sending her image on WhatsApp, Sarah’s phone pinged with a return message - and what she sawGrisly love triangle murder saw Brit caged for decades in LA…but was he framed? “I felt so stupid. He sent me a list of all the people I knew on Facebook and said he would send the image to everyone I knew. I was terrified. “I couldn’t afford £300 but felt so desperate and ashamed that I paid it into a bank account he gave me. “He came back for more but I just didn’t have it, so I blocked him and spent weeks terrified he would go ahead with his threat.” Sarah, who was too embarrassed to report the crime to cops, is just one of thousands of Brits tricked by sextortionists.It compares with 16,000 between April 2020 and March 2021 when Covid lockdowns saw Brits glued to their computers. My disabled mum said she was in love with US soldier but she'd actually given conman £169k - she's one of 1,000s of Brits being targetedLast year’s total is also more than 10 times that of a decade ago as gangs of mainly young Nigerians - known as the We can also today reveal that victims are being tricked twice - once by scammers then by fake companies who promise to get their cash back. Firms vowing to claw back money for victims are popping up all over social media and experts have warned the majority are most likely linked to the original tricksters. Ruth Grover, who has been probing romance fraudsters and providing support to victims for nine years, said: “Most of these so-called ‘recovery’ companies on social media are scams. “They pretend to be ‘ethical hackers’, that they can get money back for you but it’s far from the case. My son was absolutely stricken with fear. He kept saying he’d messed up and his life was effectively over if he didn’t send the money“They present in a way that looks genuine with official pictures, company names with grid references and maps which allegedly show how they trace sextortionists, but it’s all rubbish. “They target victims who have already lost money and offer to reclaim it for around £500 but we think they’re either affiliated with the original scammer or are the same people who’ve come back for more.The Nigerian gangs behind the majority of sextortion cases revel in lives of luxury with flash cars, designer clothes and expensive jewellery. They show off their hauls in social media posts from so-called ‘hustle kingdoms’ - usually hotel rooms where they base themselves. Sarah was conned by a scammer using the image of a Brazilian doctor whose picture has repeatedly been stolen by gangs.Sarah, who met ‘Alex’ when he sent a message to her Facebook inbox last summer, said: “I’m kicking myself because had I done a bit of research I’d have found out it was all lies. “With hindsight I think I was a bit lonely at the time and he seemed so genuine and was always asking how I was and giving me constant compliments. “I should have gone to the police really but I felt really ashamed. I’d heard stories of people sending nude images but I never thought I was like that, but it all felt so real at the time.”They are increasingly using AI to create fake profiles of attractive women to blackmail young British men. At least three UK teenagers have killed themselves after being threatened by gangs, who operate in the Philippines and Morocco as well as the Ivory Coast. Police in Scotland are believed to be working with Nigerian cops after the suicide of 16-year-old Murray Dowey, of Dunblane, in December 2023. He was tricked into sending an intimate image of himself to a sextortionist and his mum Ros told of her devastation at the “terror” her son must have felt. She told ITV: “That evening we were just chatting and watching rubbish on telly…we were just a normal family of five. “The next morning, we’re down to four people with a huge Murray-shaped gap that’s never going to go away.”Two years ago, 16-year-old Dinal De Awis, of Croydon, London, took his own life after being sent two naked pictures of himself on Snapchat by a sick extortioner who demanded £100. In 2013, Daniel Perty, 17, of Dunfermline, Fife, jumped from the Forth Road Bridge after sharing a compromising Skype message with someone he believed was a young American girl.The threats are part of a pre-written training script used by the Yahoo Boys - who earned their nickname in the early days of the internet, sending emails containing wild stories of Nigerian princes and unclaimed inheritances.Ramon Abbas, who called himself Ray Hushpuppi, flaunted a life of wealth with private jets, expensive motors and luxury watches after a series of cyberheists that saw him jailed for 11 years in Los Angeles in 2022.Three Nigerian men extradited to the US in August 2023 for their involvement in sextortion schemes which led to the death by suicide of a 17 year old The Sun exposed the contents of the gang’s script last September which lures in victims with innocent questions like ‘what do you do for fun?’, ‘where do you live?’ and ‘how old are you?’, before asking if they like to play ‘sexy games’. One mum, whose 17-year-old was targeted, told us how scammers also told her son he’d “wish you were dead’ unless he stumped up cash. He started chatting to a girl he ‘met’ on WhatsApp and sent her a picture of himself. She quickly sent it back to him on a split screen next to an image of a penis, which he insisted wasn’t his. The mum said: “My son was absolutely stricken with fear. He kept saying he’d messed up and his life was effectively over if he didn’t send the money.“He was sent a list of all his contacts on Snapchat and Instagram as proof this person had all his contacts."She added: “There was a time when dating meant a chaste kiss or a fumble if you were daring, but now sharing ‘d**k pics’ seems to be the norm among kids and it opens them up to being victims.”Campaigners are becoming increasingly worried about numbers of repeat cons with ‘reclaim’ firms popping up on social media. Tracey Grummett, part of a group exposing scams, said: “Once a gang like the Yahoo Boys has your information they can pass it to other tricksters who message victims offering a recovery service. “People are then getting scammed twice. Some UK companies offer to help on a no-win, no-fee basis but even they have problems tracking down these gangs so there’s no way some ‘hacker’ on Facebook can help. “The police have their hands tied because most of these groups are abroad where they have little jurisdiction and there are few prosecutions.” In the year to March 2024, fewer than one per cent of offenders - 178 - were charged and appeared in court.Two thirds of police investigations - 24,790- failed to identify a suspect and another 10,000 were binned over difficulties of getting justice. Meta last year began a fight-back against the scammers, shutting down 63,000 Yahoo Boy accounts on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.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.They live lives of luxury with designer clothes, flash cars and expensive jewellery.They earned the nickname Yahoo-boys back in the days of Yahoo accounts when they first tried to scam people.last month cracked down on the twisted gangs who lure victims into sending explicit images before blackmailing them for cash. The Sun recently revealed the scripts used by scammers who offer to teach other people their evil methods.“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.”
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