The Sextortion Network

Experts consider it ‚the worst scam in the world‘. It targets children, like twelve-year-old Carson Cleland, coercing them into a sexually compromising situation and in some cases, drives them to suicide. Carson was a fun-loving kid who loved pranking his sisters and summers at the lake before a sextorter blackmailed him. When he couldn’t pay the $25, he took his own life, becoming one of 40 kids who have died from the scam — five of them in Canada. Parents relive their profound grief to share their heartbreaking experience in order to warn others of potential red flags. To find out how they are pulled into the trap, we pose as teens online and become sextorted ourselves, exposing scripts they follow to lure in their victims in and apply maximum pressure to ensure they are paid. We also confront the scammers in Nigeria about their financial motivations through exclusive interviews with men who are part of the criminal network known as the Yahoo Boys. We share our findings with Sean Fraser, the Canadian federal minister of Justice, who commits to proposing legislation that will specifically address sextortion and provide new power to law enforcement to bring the scammers to justice.