BM Boys: the Nigerian sextortion network hiding in plain sight on TikTok

A TikTok video shows a young antheral fanning retired a stack of $100 bills. A 2nd flexes his decorator clothes. Another antheral posts a video of himself dancing and wearing a dense golden chain. They boast to their anxious followers astir their way to wealth.

“BM got maine a caller car,” states 1 caption connected a video. “$5,000 successful a fewer hours.”

Unlike accepted social media influencers hawking travel, brands oregon recipes, their selling constituent is crime. The men are each based successful Nigeria, and their get-rich-quick strategy is blackmailing different societal media users – usually based successful the United States and different occidental nations – by posing arsenic imaginable pistillate romanticist interests and tricking their victims into sending nude photos.

Then the threats of distributing the victim’s images and demands for wealth begin.

The proclaimed scammers telephone themselves the “BM Boys”. “BM” means blackmail, and hundreds of young men successful westbound Africa are present engaging successful these schemes. The videos flaunting their lifestyles, publicized connected TikTok to hundreds and sometimes thousands of followers, gully admiration and ambition from different young men who travel them and plead to beryllium included successful their scams.

“Boss delight tin I travel to larn [the] enactment please,” 1 follower commented connected a fashionable BM Boy’s TikTok, which drew much than 2,000 likes. “I beg you [in] the sanction of God please. thatch maine work.”

Some of the BM Boys’ accounts person garnered respective 100 1000 followers. The Guardian has identified 22 TikTok accounts tally by self-proclaimed BM Boys and besides interviewed a 24-year-old Nigerian antheral who has been moving arsenic a blackmailer for 8 years. He claims to person collected astir $100,000 from his victims during that time.

“For me, it’s an casual happening to do,” says the blackmailer, speaking connected the information of anonymity to sermon amerciable activity. “Any day, immoderate time, we are moving connected our phones due to the fact that if you don’t work, you’re not going to eat.”

Find victims connected Instagram, flex connected TikTok

One of the superior demographics the BM Boys and others similar them victimize is that of teenage boys successful the US and elsewhere. In 2023 alone, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 26,718 reports of fiscal sextortion of minors, surging from 10,731 successful 2022. Since 2021, astatine slightest 46 American teen boys person died by termination aft being targeted successful sextortion blackmailing scams.

In 2024, Meta announced it had removed 63,000 Instagram accounts it said were associated with Nigeria-based sextortionists. Despite the crackdown, Instagram remains the level of prime for blackmailers to place and prosecute with their targets, the blackmailer and quality trafficking experts interviewed said. TikTok, meanwhile, is wherever BM Boys flaunt their occurrence and enlistee newcomers to their profession.

“Others are anxious to enactment and get successful connected this scam due to the fact that they spot however profitable it is. They amusement disconnected the wealth and the gold, the luxurious clubs and question that they’re doing,” says Paul Raffile, an adept successful online exploitation. “They are utilizing the platforms and this benignant of influencer presumption successful bid to marque money.”

By appearing to unrecorded an enviable lifestyle, established sextortionists enlistee caller scammers, known arsenic “chatters”, to enactment for them. The bosses apt instrumentality a chopped of their profits, said Raffile.

“These chatters are liable for creating fake societal media profiles, trawling the net and making archetypal interaction with imaginable victims,” said Raffile. “However, erstwhile it comes clip to grip the existent transportation of funds – whether done Cash App, bitcoin wallets oregon different fiscal platforms – the brag steps in.”

A TikTok spokesperson said: “We plan TikTok to beryllium inhospitable for those intent connected causing harm to teens and we bash not tolerate immoderate contented oregon behaviour promoting sextortion.”

Tips and tricks for blackmailing

A important portion of the strategy involves gathering spot by convincing targets they are interacting with charismatic women oregon girls who look to beryllium based successful the aforesaid country. As a signifier of nonrecreational improvement for wannabe blackmailers, immoderate BM Boys station “BM Updates” connected their TikTok accounts, tips and acquisition for their followers to larn oregon refine sextortion techniques.

“Millions of radical privation to get into it. If you don’t larn it, you’ll ne'er beryllium capable to bash it,” said the blackmailer, who often posts BM Updates to turn his following.

BM Updates see copies of scripts to follow, pictures of girls to usage for imitation, tutorials connected hacking Facebook accounts and proposal connected which virtual backstage networks (VPNs) to usage to disguise that they are based successful Nigeria to evade detection. There are instructions connected composing aggravated dependable notes to compel their victims to manus implicit payments and proposal connected wherever to find these targets, including dating sites and assemblage pages.

To find and link with victims, perpetrators often prosecute successful a maneuver known arsenic “bombing”, successful which they mass-follow a ample measurement of individuals wrong circumstantial online communities, specified arsenic radical attending a school, pursuing a sports squad oregon keeping up with a celebrity. Blackmailers often stock tips connected which fanbases to target, pointing to followers of state euphony stars, Hollywood A-listers oregon fashionable tv shows.

“They bash that for 2 reasons. They volition effort to scam whoever accepts their travel request. The different crushed they bash this is it makes their fake accounts look much morganatic due to the fact that present erstwhile you get that person request, that has 20 communal friends successful common,” said Raffile. “Sometimes they’ll accidental thing like, ‘Oh, I saw you successful my suggestions, oregon my Instagram suggestions oregon radical you whitethorn know.’”

To look much convincing arsenic Americans, BM Boys devour US news, sports and popular civilization contented obsessively, the blackmailer said.

Over thousands of attempts, the scripts and strategies person been refined into a high-pressure look designed to lure victims into compromising situations quickly. In astir cases, they’ll initiate the representation speech by sending a nude photo, often stolen from sites similar OnlyFans, wherever enactment workers make content, said Raffile.

The blackmailer’s adjacent measurement is to request betwixt $500 and $3,000 successful speech for not distributing the photograph to the victim’s societal media contact, helium said. To scare them, he’ll edit their photograph connected to a paper leafage oregon TV quality amusement image.

“Sometimes I’ll telephone them and fto them cognize they are talking to a man. When [the victim] sees his representation successful the paper oregon TV news, he’ll beryllium like, ‘Oh my god.’ He’s not going to artifact me,” helium said. “I get my paper app and edit everything. I say, ‘It’s going to beryllium seen connected the fucking quality connected the TV.’”

No remorse, lone money

Promoting the fruits of blackmail connected TikTok does not travel with compunction. The blackmailer interviewed said helium is skeptical of reports that dozens of US teens person died by termination aft being targeted by sextortionists.

“I don’t consciousness blameworthy due to the fact that this is not the main crushed wherefore they perpetrate suicide. I’m not definite it’s the BM that makes the kids termination themselves,” said the blackmailer. “If idiosyncratic says they volition termination themselves to me, I deliberation they are kidding.”

He claims helium was orphaned arsenic a kid erstwhile his parent died giving commencement to 1 of his siblings, which leads him to dainty sextortion arsenic a occupation contempt its affectional consequences.

“I consciousness thing erstwhile I get the representation [from the victim]. I person to past arsenic a surviving thing,” helium said.

The deficiency of remorse exhibited by BM Boys has been profoundly traumatic for John DeMay and his family. In 2022, his lad Jordan died by termination astatine 17 aft being targeted by 3 Nigerian men posing arsenic a teenage miss connected Instagram. Two of them, Samuel Ogoshi and his younger member Samson Ogoshi, were extradited to the United States to look proceedings and are present serving sentences of 17 years and six months successful a national prison.

When the justice handed down the sentences past September, helium condemned the brothers for what helium described arsenic a “callous disregard for life”, referencing the information that they continued their sextortion schemes adjacent aft learning that Jordan had taken his ain beingness arsenic a effect of their actions.

“They fired backmost up and were close backmost astatine their aforesaid antics, with the nonstop aforesaid script, doing the nonstop aforesaid thing, the nonstop aforesaid way, knowing that Jordan killed himself,” said DeMay.

Experts accidental the equilibrium betwixt privateness and information connected children’s societal media accounts indispensable beryllium antithetic from that of adults, and that platforms should instrumentality stronger steps to support minors.

“You’re dealing with a youth. You’re dealing with idiosyncratic who volition beryllium a small much impulsive. So they’re going to marque a decision, and possibly a informing isn’t enough. In that case, possibly you request to intervene successful behaviour due to the fact that you’re dealing with a susceptible population,” said Lloyd Richardson, manager of exertion astatine the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

Meta has enacted a fig of changes successful caller years to support its youngest users. In a statement, the institution says its systems notifies teen users erstwhile they are corresponding with idiosyncratic successful different country, careless of a VPN, and blurs nude images sent from oregon to an underage account.

A Meta spokesperson said successful a statement: “Sextortion is simply a horrific crime. We enactment aggressively to combat it by removing networks of scammers, sharing accusation with different companies truthful they tin instrumentality enactment too, and supporting instrumentality enforcement to prosecute these criminals.”

Since September, Instagram has made accounts it identifies arsenic belonging to teens backstage by default, preventing radical they’re not connected to from viewing their followers. However, erstwhile a teen accepts a travel request, that idiosyncratic gains entree to the follower list. Making follower lists inaccessible adjacent to approved followers would further support teens from being targeted by sextortionists, arsenic would hiding their profiles successful search, said Raffile. He added: “It shouldn’t beryllium arsenic casual arsenic going into the Yellow Pages and pointing, ‘Here’s a teenage boy, here’s a teenage girl,’”

DeMay said societal media companies “have the capableness of putting a batch of the safeguards that request to hap wrong the platforms to forestall this, but they’re choosing not to bash it.”