How west Africa’s online fraudsters moved into sextortion
![How west Africa’s online fraudsters moved into sextortion](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fa7657abb000e8d55af6285734de1a99cac48e48/1_0_4999_3000/master/4999.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d40bc09e6570b6283dc96fa01b6870ca)
With ‘hustle kingdoms’ teaching young people the tricks of the trade, there has been a surge in blackmailing crimes
- National Crime Agency threatens extraditions over rise in sextortion cases
- ‘It looks so real’: amid rise in financial sextortion, Childline is helping teenagers fight back
In the late 90s and early 2000s, as internet connectivity began penetrating west Africa, young people soon realised that individuals in North America and Europe with access to more money than them and potentially susceptible to blackmail were now reachable by the click of a button.
Along came the “Nigerian prince” letters, a famous scamming technique employed by online fraudsters – known as Yahoo boys in Nigeria, Sakawa boys of Ghana and the brouteurs of Ivory Coast – preying on unsuspecting targets across the web. The emails typically involved someone pretending to be Nigerian royalty and asking for money, a claim so outlandish that victims presumed it couldn’t be a lie.
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