Yahoo Boys

Summary

Podcast Summary: “Yahoo Boys”

Podcast: Left To Their Own Devices
Host: Toronto Star
Episode: Yahoo Boys
Air date: October 24, 2025

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode dives into the harrowing impact of “Yahoo Boys”—West African cybercriminals specializing in digital scams—and their devastating sextortion schemes targeting teenagers. Host Ava Smithing, a survivor of social media addiction herself, investigates how these scams operate, how platforms enable them, and why efforts to stop them continue to fall short. Central to the story is the tragedy of Danny Linds, a small-town Canadian teenager driven to suicide after falling victim to a sextortion scam. Through personal narratives, expert analysis, and stark statistics, the episode explores the intersection of adolescent vulnerability, evolving online crime, and the failures of Big Tech and authorities to protect youth.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Rise and Evolution of Yahoo Boys

• What are Yahoo Boys?
  • West African (mainly Nigerian) cybercriminals known for various online scams.
  • Infamous for early “Nigerian prince” email cons, now leveraging AI and deepfakes.

    “The Yahoo Boys are a group of young men from West Africa, mostly Nigeria. And even if you don't know their name, you probably know their work.” – Ava Smithing [00:45]

• Sophistication of Modern Scams
  • Use of fake video calls, AI voice changers, deepfake images to impersonate others.
  • Training and recruitment for scams broadcasted on platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

    “They share the blueprints for these right out in the Open on TikTok, YouTube and Telegram.” – Ava Smithing [01:44]

2. Sextortion Targeting Teenage Boys

• The Scam’s Mechanics
  • Criminals pretend to be attractive girls, initiate flirtatious chats, and send nude images (often fake), later coercing teenagers to reciprocate.
  • Immediate blackmail follows, threatening to release explicit materials unless paid.

    “After he sent that image, the perpetrator would have immediately flipped the script, demanding that Danny send them money and threatening that if he didn't, they'd send his naked image to everyone he knew.” – Ava Smithing [11:56]

• Prevalence and Impact
  • Financial sextortion of minors in the U.S. increased by 18,000% between 2021–2023.

    “There were only 139 reported cases of financial sextortion targeting minors here in the U.S. By 2023…over 26,000 reported cases.” – Paul Rafael [20:35]

  • At least 52 teen suicides linked to these crimes since 2021.

    “There have been at least 52 teen suicides as a result of sextortion since 2021. One of them was Danny Lynn's.” – Narrator/Reporter [30:16]

3. Danny Linds’ Story: Personalizing the Crisis

• Setting:
  • Small town of Pilot Mound, Manitoba, population 700.
• Danny’s Backstory:
  • Hardworking, responsible, close-knit with family (“Safe as a church, one would think.” – Jill Linds [07:18])
• Sequence of Events:
  • Danny, 17, is targeted via Snapchat; scam traced to Nigeria.
  • Family observed normal behavior until the day he disappeared and was later found deceased.
  • Despite all precautions, parents left with unanswered questions and unresolved grief.
• Memorable Quote:

  “What does one dead teenager matter to them? It doesn't. It matters everything to us and our community.” – Derek Linds [05:17, 32:46]

4. How The Scams Work: Expert Analysis

• Guest Expert: Paul Rafael, cyber investigations analyst.
• Process & Targeting:
  • “Bombing” technique: sending mass friend requests in specific communities or sports teams for plausibility.
  • Use of AI to create realistic fake accounts, indistinguishable from real ones.
• Platforms Most Affected:
  • Instagram, Snapchat, and Wiz (“teenage Tinder”).

    “So the top three social media platforms where these criminals are targeting teens, number one is Instagram, number two is Snapchat, and number three is…Wiz.” – Paul Rafael [21:28]

• Platforms’ Inadequate Responses:
  • Snapchat, Meta (Instagram/Facebook), and Wiz all claim to fight sextortion, but real-world effects are thin.
  • Snapchat receives over 10,000 sextortion reports per month; still, safety design flaws persist.

    “They are part of the problem.” – Paul Rafael (about Snapchat) [24:42]

  • Instagram’s nudity filter just blurs photos, does not prevent the exchange.

    “What this feature does is essentially nothing, though.” – Paul Rafael [27:16]

  • Platforms prioritize engagement/revenue over teen safety.

    “It's a trade off between money versus teen safety and which one is winning, do you think? – Money, no doubt.” – Paul Rafael [28:39-28:41]

5. Frustration with Accountability

• Victims’ Families Seek Action
  • The Linds family writes to MPs; minimal responses received.

    “I received about six responses.” – Derek Linds [31:46]

  • Anger at both tech companies and the government.
• Moral Dilemma: Civil Liberties vs. Kids’ Lives

  “Who is this protecting? And right now, tech billionaires are the ones who are dictating our freedom of speech.” – Derek Linds [32:19]

6. Emotional Aftermath: Grief and Guilt

• Lingering Questions:
  • Parents reflect on what they might have missed, despite consistent involvement and open conversations.

    “‘It's a slap in the face…We did all of those things,’ — Jill Linds [33:03-33:09]

• Unable to Move On:
  • Danny’s room, belongings left unchanged; daily reminders and lasting pain.

    “I often feel his presence…It's just like punching the gut, you know.” – Derek & Jill Linds [34:04-34:15]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|-------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:46 | Paul Rafael | “Yahoo Boys out of Nigeria have killed more American teens in the past two years than ISIS ever has.” | | 05:17 | Derek Linds | “What does one dead teenager matter to them? It doesn't. It matters everything to us and our community.” | | 18:25 | Paul Rafael | “Their targeting is actually quite interesting. And what we see most common is these Yahoo boys have a method that they call bombing.” | | 21:28 | Paul Rafael | “So the top three social media platforms that we know where these criminals are targeting teens, number one is Instagram, number two is Snapchat, and number three is…Wiz.” | | 22:14 | Paul Rafael | “These criminals are not sophisticated. They are not using a VPN…if law enforcement wanted to solve these crimes, they certainly have the ability to. They aren't difficult.” | | 24:42 | Paul Rafael | “Snapchat is amongst the top two platforms where financial sextortion happens, and it's due to the actual design of the platform itself. So they are part of the problem.” | | 27:16 | Paul Rafael | “Instagram rolled out a whole nudity protection feature…What this feature does is essentially nothing, though.” | | 28:39-41 | Paul Rafael | “So it is a trade off for the companies, and it's a trade off between money versus teen safety and which one is winning, do you think? – Money, no doubt.” | | 32:46 | Derek Linds | “What does one dead teenager matter to them? It doesn't. It matters everything to us and our community.” | | 33:05-09 | Jill Linds | “It's a slap in the face. …We did all of those things.” |

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• [00:22–02:27]: Introduction to the Yahoo Boys and their scamming methods.
• [03:23–16:04]: Danny Linds’ personal story, leading up to and immediately after the scam.
• [16:27–23:11]: Paul Rafael explains the techniques and prevalence of financial sextortion.
• [23:11–28:41]: Investigation into platform responses, weaknesses in safety features, company incentives.
• [30:16–34:15]: The Linds family reckons with their grief and frustrations, the failures of politics and tech giants.

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Conclusion

This episode lays bare the tragedy of online child exploitation, examining both its human toll through Danny’s heartbreaking story and the systemic failings of social networks and law enforcement. With sharp reporting and sensitive storytelling, “Yahoo Boys” challenges listeners to reckon with the true cost of the world’s most powerful technologies left unchecked in children’s hands. As the series continues, the question remains: will Big Tech or our institutions ever be held to account?

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This summary covers the content-rich segments, skipping advertisements and non-content portions as directed.

Transcript

[Ava Smithing]

A heads up before we start this episode contains references to suicide. Please take care while listening.

[Format Boy]

Alright, so you want to learn how to make a fake video call? I'm gonna be teaching you guys exactly how to make a fake video call in this video. Now, what are the things?

[Ava Smithing]

This is an influencer named Format Boy.

[Format Boy]

The first thing you're gonna need is a webcam.

[Ava Smithing]

He's not an influencer in the conventional sense. In his videos, he doesn't show his face or use his real name. And all of his content is about one thing, how to scam people.

[Format Boy]

Please note this video is only for educational purposes only.

[Ava Smithing]

Format Boy belongs to a criminal subculture known as the Yahoo Boys.

[Format Boy]

Okay guys, please subscribe, like and share this video.

[Ava Smithing]

The Yahoo Boys are a group of young men from West Africa, mostly Nigeria. And even if you don't know their name, you probably know their work. Remember those Nigerian prince email scams?

[Narrator/Reporter]

That was them.

[Ava Smithing]

Recently though, as technology has evolved, so have their scams.

[Yahoo Boy/Scammer]

This is how the voice changer works.

[Ava Smithing]

They've begun using devices that allow them to alter their voices.

[Yahoo Boy/Scammer]

Obviously I'm a guy and I want to use a female voice and then I'm just gonna talk to the mic. Hello?

[Jill Linds]

Hello, can you hear me?

[Ava Smithing]

And they've started using AI to create convincing deepfakes.

[Yahoo Boy/Scammer]

So once you open the app, click

[Format Boy]

on photo face swap, Upload another picture

[Yahoo Boy/Scammer]

of a girl or a woman.

[Ava Smithing]

The Yahoo boys are behind dozens of different cons. Cryptocurrency scams, romance scams that target the elderly. Scams where they impersonate celebrities. And they share the blueprints for these right out in the Open on TikTok, YouTube and Telegram.

[Format Boy]

If you want to learn any updates, maybe celeb, military dating, anything at all, message me, you understand?

[Ava Smithing]

A couple of years ago, the Yahoo boys discovered what might be their most lucrative scam yet. The extortion of teenage boys.

[Yahoo Boy/Scammer]

Hello my fellows. I don't carry another update. Come like this. This one. Blackmailing updates.

[Ava Smithing]

According to the national center for Missing and exploited children, between 2021 and 2023, the financial sextortion of minors in the US increased by 18,000%. And in the process, the Yahoo boys made millions of dollars and destroyed thousands of lives.

[Paul Rafael]

Yahoo Boys out of Nigeria have killed more American teens in the past two years than ISIS ever has.

[Ava Smithing]

I'm Ava Smithing from Paradigms and the Toronto Star. This is left to their own devices. Episode 6 yahoo bo.

[Jill Linds]

So this was kind of like his little domain down here. Basically his friends would hang out and play Video games and do whatever, sleepovers and.

[Derek Linds]

Yeah, well, it's changed a bit.

[Ava Smithing]

Last winter we enlisted a veteran investigative reporter named Robert Cribb and to visit Derek and Jill Linds.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

And you're right on the border. North Dakota border.

[Ava Smithing]

The Lynces live in a tiny town in Manitoba called Pilot Mound.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

What's the population?

[Derek Linds]

700.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Is it 700 people?

[Derek Linds]

Yeah.

[Jill Linds]

Really?

[Ava Smithing]

Derek and Jill took Rob into their basement where their 17 year old son Danny had set up his man cave. There was a drum kit in the corner, a hockey bag on the floor and baseball jerseys on the wall.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

There's homework on his desk here.

[Derek Linds]

Yeah,

[Interviewer/Reporter]

It's frozen in time. So you presumably come down here past this door every day?

[Jill Linds]

Yep. Walking by that window outside there in the walkway. He'd walk by and I'd always see his light on and he'd be sitting there working away at homework or playing a game with his friends. And I still look at that window every day when I walk by. The light's never on.

[Ava Smithing]

It's been more than three years since that light was turned on. Three years since Danny Lyntz received a message on Snapchat from someone he thought was a pretty girl and who turned out to be a dangerous cybercriminal.

[Jill Linds]

They pretty much traced it to Nigeria. And he told me that's basically where it ends.

[Ava Smithing]

It's been three years of unanswered questions and desperate pleas for accountability.

[Derek Linds]

What does one dead teenager matter to them? It doesn't. It matters everything to us and our community.

[Ava Smithing]

Derek and Jill lost Danny on February 19, 2022. He was only 17. So when I tell you this story, the way it ends won't be a surprise. But what is surprising is that it happened at all. Why has a scam that's killed dozens of teenagers been allowed to flourish online? Why do YouTube and TikTok let the Yahoo boys openly trade scripts and strategies to scam and extort people on their platforms? And why hasn't Snapchat done more to prevent kids from being targeted on their app, despite the fact that they receive more than 10,000 reports of sextortion every month? These are the questions I want answers to.

[Narrator/Reporter]

When we asked TikTok about this, they declined to provide a comment on the record. A spokesperson from YouTube told us that, quote, these schemes are abhorrent and we're committed to removing content intended to harm our community using a combination of human review and machine learning technology. And we'll describe our correspondence with Snapchat later in this episode.

[Ava Smithing]

But before we get to all of that.

[Narrator/Reporter]

I want to tell you about Danny.

[Jill Linds]

Well, we weren't really keen on staying in the city, and so we kind of wanted to move just to a small town to raise kids and whatnot.

[Ava Smithing]

Derek and Jill Lyntz thought the sleepy town of Pilot Mound was the perfect place to raise their kids.

[Derek Linds]

People look out for you here. The neighbors always know what you're up to and can't get away with anything. See the kids playing at the playground over there? I can watch them over in the snow. Kit. When they were little, you knew people would look out for them.

[Jill Linds]

Safe as a church, one would think.

[Derek Linds]

Yeah.

[Ava Smithing]

Their son Danny was born on August 18, 2004.

[Jill Linds]

One thing I always remember is when he was a toddler, people would be over and they'd say, well, where's Danny going? I'd say, well, he went for a nap. Everybody would just be flabbergasted. Like what? He puts himself to bed for his morning nap or his afternoon nap. I say, yep, that's just what he does.

[Ava Smithing]

From the time he was little, that was Danny's nature. Hard working, responsible, mature beyond his years.

[Jill Linds]

Never ever had to get after him

[Derek Linds]

to no he was homework or.

[Jill Linds]

Yeah, he would always be down there working on his work.

[Paul Rafael]

On.

[Derek Linds]

Worried too much, maybe doing well. He wanted to do well. He wanted to make something of himself.

[Ava Smithing]

Of course, all parents fret over their kids, but the Lynces always felt like Danny was on the straight and narrow.

[Jill Linds]

I remember thinking, you know, like, he's. He's good. Like he's on his way. Like, I don't really have to worry, you know. Of course you worry about things, but it's kind of like, he's doing good, he's gonna be all right in life. Was kind of.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Which is a reassuring moment for dad.

[Jill Linds]

Yeah, that's what I thought.

[Ava Smithing]

When Danny wasn't studying, he was outside playing street hockey with his friends or doing chores for the neighbors. Usually with a toque pulled over his curly brown hair.

[Jill Linds]

Always going to Grandma's. She liked to play board games with her.

[Derek Linds]

He's really smart.

[Jill Linds]

Like, nobody would play against him with chess and stuff, because it was awful. He would beat us all, and so nobody would play with him anymore.

[Ava Smithing]

That was what life was like for the Lynces for 17 years. Quiet, idyllic, quintessential small town living. And then came the winter of 2022. On Thursday, February 17, Danny went suit shopping with his mom. He'd be graduating high school that spring.

[Derek Linds]

He kind of surprised me. He kind of picked out. I Don't know. It was blue. Blue. The suit was blue, but the shirt was more purple. Yeah, he just. He always looked good in blue. So. Yeah. Driving home that night, there was a bit of a storm, so. And I teased him on the way home. Well, maybe we should stop at this person's place or stop at that person's place. What if we get storm state? Oh, mom, we'll be fine.

[Jill Linds]

Just.

[Derek Linds]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

So you got home that night. Normal night.

[Derek Linds]

Normal night.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Puts his suit away in the closet.

[Derek Linds]

Yeah.

[Jill Linds]

Modeled it for us.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Modeled it.

[Jill Linds]

Took some pictures.

[Derek Linds]

Yeah. Friday.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Tell me about Friday.

[Jill Linds]

Normal day.

[Derek Linds]

Yeah.

[Jill Linds]

Everything from getting up for breakfast and going to school or coming home for supper. We always eat together at the table. No phones, no TVs. Everything was good.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

This is right here at Unique here.

[Derek Linds]

Yeah.

[Jill Linds]

Yep. We'll sit right here.

[Ava Smithing]

The next day, Saturday, Joe went to take Danny's sisters to a figure skating competition. And Danny headed down to his part time job at the local hardware store. It was only then that Jill got any inkling that something wasn't right.

[Derek Linds]

On my way home from the figure skating competition, and he could see through the windows in the home hardware and he was on his phone. So I thought to myself, well, gotta talk to him later. You know, you shouldn't be on your cell phone at work. It's not cool.

[Ava Smithing]

That night at dinner, everything seemed perfectly normal.

[Derek Linds]

Made pizza, his favorite kind of pizza. Seemed to eat fine.

[Ava Smithing]

But unbeknownst to Derek and Jill, Danny had received a message from a Nigerian cyber criminal, most likely a Yahoo boy, earlier that day, or maybe the night before. The scam was a simple one. The perpetrator posed as an attractive young woman, found Danny on social media and started flirting with him. Eventually, they sent a naked image. Probably just something they found online. And then they asked Danny to do the same.

[Derek Linds]

The first time Danny ever did anything like that.

[Ava Smithing]

After he sent that image, the perpetrator would have immediately flipped the script, demanding that Danny send them money and threatening that if he didn't, they'd send his naked image to everyone he knew.

[Derek Linds]

So I did the dishes, got ready to go, and I went down to his room.

[Ava Smithing]

The family had made plans to go see a movie.

[Derek Linds]

I said, well, you want to drive down or should we walk down? It was kind of stormy and he didn't really say too much. He seemed to be okay. I don't know, in retrospect, if I look back, maybe his eyes were a little bit red, perhaps from crying, but I just. I don't know. I didn't. I Didn't clue into anything. And I think about that all the time. Then I went upstairs to one more bathroom break before we had to go. And he yelled from the porch, and he said, I'm gonna go to Grandma's and water the flowers, the plants. And I didn't have time to get out of the bathroom and stop him and say, well, are you going to come back and pick me up or. So I get out and, well, he didn't take the dog. So I thought, well, why wouldn't he? Okay, whatever. Sometimes teenagers don't. My teenagers don't always have a good sense of time. Like, got to go to the movie right away, but you're going out to water the plants.

[Paul Rafael]

Okay.

[Ava Smithing]

Derek and Jill went down to the theater to wait for Danny. He never showed up.

[Derek Linds]

Just tried to phone him and text him.

[Jill Linds]

Yeah.

[Derek Linds]

And he didn't respond. He wasn't really overly worried. Sometimes kids change their mind at the last minute. Or maybe he got there. He liked to have long showers. Maybe he watched grandmas decide to have a shower. Something else came up. I don't.

[Ava Smithing]

Eventually, the movie ends and. And there's still no sign of Danny outside. The weather has taken a turn. And when the Lynces leave the theater, they find themselves in the middle of a snowstorm, and still no sign of Danny when they get home. So Derek gets in his car to go find him.

[Jill Linds]

So I took the Jeep, and I could see some tail lights up in the. In the distance. And I got closer and I could see that it was my car, my old car. And the snow had made such a drift, it was probably four feet high. I guess he tried to go around it and didn't make it. The car was there in the ditch. So I got close enough and went and looked, and it was locked. And his phone was in the car and it was running. So I said, oh, well, there's what happened. He got stuck. Jumped out to have a look. Forgot to put it in park because he was stuck. So the doors stay locked. That's why he's not responding, because his phone's right there. I can see it.

[Ava Smithing]

The big snow drift on the road is so high that Derek can't get around it either. So, like Danny, he gets out and heads over to Grandma's house on foot.

[Jill Linds]

I got down to Grandma's Lane and I could see his footprints. You could always tell. Just that I could tell they were his. His feet would kind of point this way a bit. And like, yeah, those are his prints for sure. So good. He's here.

[Ava Smithing]

Derek went into the house and that's when he found Danny. He called his wife, Danny's mom, Jill,

[Jill Linds]

because I knew she was coming out. So she can't, she can't come out here. So I had to phone her, tell her everything was fine and that she needed to go home. So I couldn't have her there. She couldn't, couldn't see that. So that was

[Derek Linds]

heart.

[Jill Linds]

I just couldn't say it. She doesn't deserve to hear something like that. I couldn't say it and I couldn't say it.

[Paul Rafael]

So all of my friends know me as the digital investigations guy.

[Ava Smithing]

This is Paul Rafael.

[Paul Rafael]

I am a cyber investigations analyst and I'm an expert in financial sextortion scams.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Paul began his career as a cyber analyst with an interesting assignment tracking ISIS on social media.

[Paul Rafael]

Isis, just like us, tends to overshare on social media and help.

[Ava Smithing]

But a couple of years ago, his career took an unexpected turn.

[Paul Rafael]

One of my friends came to me with a pretty embarrassing problem. He had been tricked and catfished by someone who he thought was a woman his age online into sharing a photo. And now she was using it to blackmail him.

[Ava Smithing]

Paul had never heard of anything like this before, so he started looking into it.

[Paul Rafael]

And what I found when I started digging into this online is the striking similarity of how common these cases were, but also specific similarities between these cases happening to tens of thousands of people a day. These scams were using the same scripts.

[Format Boy]

Alright, so you want to learn how to make a fake video call, word

[Paul Rafael]

for word, sometimes down to the same typos. The criminals were using the same images, same profile pictures repeatedly.

[Ava Smithing]

When he dug a little deeper, Paul discovered that most of these scams were coming from the same place when they

[Paul Rafael]

were using a phone number to text the victim. It was an international phone number with a country code linking back to West Africa.

[Yahoo Boy/Scammer]

Hello, my fellow. I don't carry another update come like this, this one blackmail update.

[Ava Smithing]

Over the past couple years, Paul has become one of the world's leading authorities on sextortion. And the Yahoo boys. He's figured out exactly how they operate, which platforms they communicate on, the scripts they use, and their methods for finding victims.

[Paul Rafael]

Their targeting is actually quite interesting. And what we see most common is these Yahoo boys have a method that they call bombing. And bombing is essentially flooding a whole bunch of friend requests into a specific town, a specific community to elicit as many followers as they can and to make their account appear authentic. As part of that community, if you get a friend request of somebody with no mutual followers, no mutual friends, versus somebody that has 20 mutual followers. You're going to think that person with with 20 mutuals is real and is somebody in your outer circle. So what we often see is these criminals identify either a high school or university sports team, and they will go to the Instagram account and just follow all of the members of that team.

[Ava Smithing]

Once they've bombed a community like this, the Yahoo boys start sending out messages.

[Paul Rafael]

They will approach these unsuspecting victims with a normal conversation at first, but it quickly turns flirtatious, and they will end up sending increasingly flirtatious photos, including a nude photo, to their victims. And as soon as that happens, they will coerce the victim to return with a photo of their own. The moment that happens, that's when they flip the script. I have your nudes and everything needed to ruin your life. I've screenshotted all your friends, your followers, your family, and I'm going to send it to all of them unless you pay me, you know, 1500, $1000 right now. Whatever they're asking for in that case,

[Ava Smithing]

it's not a particularly sophisticated scam, but it seems to work. And that, quote, unquote, success has led

[Narrator/Reporter]

to an explosion in financial sextortion.

[Paul Rafael]

The reason why this crime started to surge in 2022 and grow exponentially is because the Yahoo boys were sharing these sextortion scripts, these sextortion how to manuals, the photos to use, and it went viral within their scam communities. There were only 139 reported cases of financial sextortion targeting minors here in the U.S. by 2023, just two years later, there were over 26,000 reported cases here in the U.S. targeting minors alone. So that's an 18,000% increase within the span of two years.

[Ava Smithing]

Of course, this isn't just happening in the States. These crimes have devastated communities all over the world and made the Yahoo boys a lot of money in the process.

[Paul Rafael]

This crime is actually very profitable, and that speaks to how viral it has gone in the past two years. We actually do know of one criminal who has made over $3.5 million from financial sextortion scams.

[Ava Smithing]

All of this is essentially happening in plain sight on wildly popular social media platforms.

[Paul Rafael]

So the top three social media platforms that we know where these criminals are targeting teens, number one is Instagram, number two is Snapchat, and number three is a social media platform called Wiz, which has been dubbed basically a teenage Tinder.

[Narrator/Reporter]

We asked Wiz about this extortion problem on their platform. Their operations manager, Alexandra Ryobova told us

[Ava Smithing]

that they take the issue very seriously

[Narrator/Reporter]

and remain fully committed to protecting minors online. They also told us that they spend 50% of their operating costs on safety and that unlike most social media platforms,

[Ava Smithing]

they do verify their users actual ages.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Even so, Paul wonders why this problem is still so prevalent.

[Paul Rafael]

These criminals are not sophisticated. They are not using a vpn. They are oftentimes logged into their own accounts on the same device. And if law enforcement wanted to solve these crimes, they certainly have the ability to. They aren't difficult.

[Ava Smithing]

If it's so easy, why isn't law enforcement doing more to stop this from happening? Part of the answer might be the social media companies.

[Paul Rafael]

They're intentionally kind of stonewalling some of these investigations when they have all the data at their fingertips to help. And, you know, part of me thinks that they don't want to come public with how much crime is actually happening on their platform. You know, if one of these platforms were to just give all of this extortion data to law enforcement, they would find hundreds of thousands of new cases and it would also make the platform look very, very bad.

[Ava Smithing]

In 2024, we got a window into just how bad it is. A lawsuit from New Mexico's attorney general unearthed internal Snapchat documents showing that there are 10,000 reports of sextortion on that platform every month. We wanted to interview someone from Snapchat

[Derek Linds]

about this snap operation.

[Ava Smithing]

We even went to their headquarters in Santa Monica to try to talk to someone there.

[Derek Linds]

Okay, let me go to send over security to your location. I'll be there shortly.

[Ava Smithing]

They didn't let us in.

[Jill Linds]

Go to the interview. It's private property. You're gonna have to wait for someone to respond to you.

[Ava Smithing]

Snapchat never granted us a sit down interview, but they did provide us something in writing. This is what they the sexual exploitation of any Snapchatter is horrific, illegal, and against our policies. We know sextortion is a risk teens and adults face across a range of platforms, but we have zero tolerance for this type of illegal activity on Snapchat. We are committed to developing tools to help combat it, and we work around the clock with law enforcement to support their investigations to bring criminals to justice. We also want to help young people learn the signs of this type of crime and have launched in app resources to raise awareness on how to spot and report it.

[Paul Rafael]

Well, the first thing they mention is, oh, this is a crime that happens across all platforms. It's not just us. It couldn't be just us. That's very misleading.

[Ava Smithing]

I Asked Paul about that response.

[Paul Rafael]

Snapchat is amongst the top two platforms where financial sextortion happens, and it's due to the actual design of the platform itself. So they are part of the problem.

[Ava Smithing]

Paul is referring to a few different design features here, one of which is just the fundamental nature of Snapchat. The promise that your photos will disappear once you send them.

[Paul Rafael]

Kids feel a false sense of security engaging in the exchange of intimate images on Snapchat. Snapchat is known for its disappearing photos feature, so kids think it's less risky to share content like this on Snapchat,

[Ava Smithing]

but that doesn't stop people from screenshotting those pictures. And while there are supposed to be safety features on Snapchat that let you know if someone has secretly screenshotted your photos, Paul says they don't work.

[Paul Rafael]

So it is a defective notification and the criminals are able to surreptitiously screenshot and screen record all this material without that notification happening.

[Ava Smithing]

Then there's the Quick Add feature, which lets you send friend requests to people you may not know. Remember in our last episode, this is how Sarah's predators were able to find her. In 2023, Snapchat tried addressing this by implementing a feature that prohibits people from messaging underage users until the underage user has accepted their friend request. But this clearly doesn't solve the problem because Yahoo boys employ the bombing technique, adding dozens of people from the same high school or sports teams. These fake accounts often look legitimate, so young users don't hesitate to engage with them.

[Paul Rafael]

The social media accounts that they're using are virtually indistinguishable from real accounts, Especially with advances in AI today, there's no telling who is real and who isn't on the other end.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Then there's Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. Often Yahoo boys will make contact on these platforms first before moving the conversations with their victims to Snapchat. We asked Meta about this and they told us that they think sextortion is a horrific crime and that they've spent years working with experts to combat it, including removing 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria that they believed were involved in these sextortion scams. They also highlighted new safety features, including Instagram teen accounts, which only allow users to be messaged by people they are already connected to on the app. But Paul doesn't think these new safety

[Ava Smithing]

features are particularly effective.

[Paul Rafael]

Instagram rolled out a whole nudity protection feature which is supposed to help prevent against, you know, all sorts of sexual related crimes targeting children. And this is a feature turned on by default on teen accounts. What this feature does is essentially nothing, though. If a teen sends or receives a nude photo, Instagram will blur the photo, but then have you tap it in order to unblur the photo. So I don't think this is actually preventing anything. And in fact, it shows that Instagram is knowingly facilitating nude image exchanges between teen accounts.

[Ava Smithing]

What Paul's saying here is that if Instagram knows how to blur these images, then they know that they're being sent, but they're not preventing the exchange of nude photos of teenagers on their platform. They're just making it slightly more inconvenient to view them. Ultimately, though, Paul does believe the people running these platforms want to address this problem, but only if it doesn't interfere with their bottom line.

[Paul Rafael]

So perhaps by not displaying a teen's full follower list to mutual friends, and instead of having that as a private list, perhaps they lose out on some level of engagement because there are less requests being sent out to mutual friends. So it is a trade off for the companies, and it's a trade off between money versus teen safety and which

[Narrator/Reporter]

one is winning, do you think?

[Paul Rafael]

Money, no doubt.

[Ava Smithing]

As the public becomes more aware of this issue, we do seem to be making a little headway in combating sextortion, But Paul says we're a long way away from truly fixing the problem.

[Paul Rafael]

It seems like right now all the safety features that have been implemented over the past year might be mildly effective. Cases might be going down, although it's hard to really judge the data now. At this point, I will wait for authoritative data to come in. But still, even with some of the safety features that have now been implemented, I am still on a daily basis hearing of new cases coming in from Instagram and from Snapchat.

[Ava Smithing]

In the meantime, the Yahoo boys continue to operate with relative impunity, sharing scripts and tools online without fear of reprisal from the authorities or the platforms. All over the Internet, there are videos of Yahoo boys showing off express expensive cars and watches or throwing stacks of money into the air. Money they made from terrorizing teenagers around the world.

[Paul Rafael]

These criminals, they don't stop after one case. They are targeting dozens and dozens of people a week. You have to be that person to break the chain, otherwise the criminals are going to end up killing somebody. We know that for approximately out of every 1,000 cases that are reported to law enforcement, there's approximately one teen suicide.

[Narrator/Reporter]

According to Paul, there have been at least 52 teen suicides as a result of sextortion since 2020. 1. One of them was Danny Lynn's.

[Derek Linds]

Well, of course you struggle, right? That night, even I prayed, let him be okay. And he wasn't okay. So that's tough. But I do believe that evil is what took Daniel.

[Ava Smithing]

Three years after his death, Derek and Jill are still trying to process what happened to their son.

[Jill Linds]

It keeps me up at night still about, I think. I try not to, but what he must have been feeling and going through right up until the end, it must have been horrifying.

[Derek Linds]

Of course, I ask myself that question every day. I was right here. Why he didn't come to me. I have to live with that. I ask myself all the time.

[Ava Smithing]

As the days and months wear on, some of that sadness has morphed into anger. Anger at the tech companies and at the politicians who are supposed to be keeping Canadians safe.

[Derek Linds]

I wrote over to every single MP in the fall of 2023 as I thought that maybe if they heard this horrific story, everybody would come together.

[Jill Linds]

Three hundred and something letters she sent me.

[Derek Linds]

Yeah. And I thought, well, maybe they'd come together to protect other kids. And I received about six responses.

[Jill Linds]

It's not about what's good for the people are good for the kids or good for the Canadians, or it's all about fighting amongst themselves and not getting anywhere with it sometimes.

[Derek Linds]

Everybody talks about how Internet regulation will affect civil liberties and freedom of speech. I struggle with that a little bit.

[Jill Linds]

I struggle with it a lot.

[Derek Linds]

Me too. Who is this protecting? And right now, tech billionaires are the ones who are dictating our freedom of speech. And I read one article that teenagers are valued to meta at $270 each. So what does one dead teenager matter to them? It doesn't. It matters everything to us and our community.

[Jill Linds]

And the thing I get sick of hearing about too, is people say, well, you gotta have the hard. The hard conversations with your kids. And that is.

[Derek Linds]

It's a slap in the face.

[Jill Linds]

It is because we.

[Derek Linds]

We did all of those things.

[Jill Linds]

We stayed on. Like, we didn't tell them one thing and then not talk to them again for three years. You know, we're always. Joe was on the platforms. I would check his phone. I'd grab him by the shoulders so I'd have his full attention. I'd look him in the face in his room. I go, are you okay? Everything good with you? Any troubles? No, no, everything's good. I made sure I did that. I don't know how many. Times.

[Ava Smithing]

In their house in Pilot Mound, Derek and Jill have left Danny's room almost exactly as it was three years ago. His hockey bag still has gear in it. His homework is still on his desk.

[Jill Linds]

I think he still has money in his wallet.

[Derek Linds]

Yeah.

[Ava Smithing]

The Lynces aren't sure what they want to do with the room. They're not quite ready to let go just yet.

[Derek Linds]

I often feel his presence. He was setting the table and I kept putting that extra plate out or with the extra cutlery, where he would have been

[Jill Linds]

something that you don't do for months. And then all of a sudden you go to set the table and you grab five plates. It's just like punching the gut, you know, you go to set them, put one.

[Ava Smithing]

Next time on Left to Their Own Devices.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I'm not interested in some massive settlement. I want them to change the way they do business.

[Ava Smithing]

Can anyone hold Big Tech accountable?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

It's enabling the world, worst of the worst, to find the most vulnerable people and harm them. And that has to stop.

[Derek Linds]

What's a win for us? A win is change. It's in their own damn documents. They are killing kids. And I don't care if it's one kid or 10 million kids, it is Killing Kids.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Left to Their Own Devices is hosted and produced by me, Ava Smithing. The show is written, produced, mixed and sound designed by Mitchell Stewart. Our story editor is Kathleen Goldhar. Additional reporting in this episode by Robert Cribb of the Investigative Journalism Bureau.

[Ava Smithing]

The executive producers for Paradigms are James

[Narrator/Reporter]

Millward, Helen Hayes, Taylor Owen and Mitchell Stewart.

[Ava Smithing]

The executive producer for the Toronto Star is JP Fozo. If you want early access to upcoming episodes of Left to Their Own Devices, subscribe to the Toronto [e-mail].