HOW TO WIN FOLLOWERS AND SCAMFLUENCE PEOPLE

When West Africa's notorious Yahoo Boys need to freshen up their repertoire of online scams, there's one man they turn to.

- BY MATT BURGESS

AS SOON AS Format Boy answers the phone, I recognize his booming voice. I’ve spent weeks immersed in the influencer’s back catalog of videos and voice notes. Format Boy isn’t like other influencers: He doesn’t show his face, and he won't tell me his real name. He isn’t posting motivational content or seeking lucrative brand deals. Instead, he’s teaching his audience how to orchestrate high-paying online scams.

Format Boy—as he styles himself on YouTube, Telegram, Instagram, and X, where he has amassed thousands of followers and racked up hundreds of thousands of views—acts as an unofficial adviser to a collective of menacing West African fraudsters known as the Yahoo Boys.

Typically these cybercriminals, mostly young men, work from their phones or laptops to con wealthy foreigners—often Americans—out of their life savings. Some have started using face-swapping and deepfakes to enhance their grifts. In one recent development, Yahoo Boys posted fake CNN broadcasts with AI-generated newscasters designed to trick people they’re blackmailing into thinking they’ve been outed on the news.

Often based in Nigeria, Yahoo Boys build elaborate relationships with their victims over weeks or months before they extract whatever cash they can. They’re not the most technically sophisticated scammers, but they’re agile and skillful social engineers. Victims in the US, UK, and elsewhere have lost millions to Yahoo Boys in recent years, and multiple teenage boys have reportedly taken their own lives after being blackmailed and sextorted by them.