Marketplace Season 53 Episode 2

Reality Realm US

Marketplace Season 53 Episode 2  #RealityRealmUS Reality Realm US

Transcript

00:00The following program contains mature subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised.

00:13It's a scam that targets vulnerable teens.

00:17So she says, wow, you are looking good.

00:20An innocent exchange that leads to sexual extortion.

00:24There is no other scam that involves targeting children, coercing them into a sexually compromising situation.

00:31We find criminals cashing in on fear all the way from Nigeria.

00:36Why you scam people?

00:39And uncover the tragic truth of those who lose it all.

00:44The amount of children that have died for this, it makes no sense.

00:49This is your Marketplace.

00:54High up, something like that, yeah.

00:57We're building Instagram profiles.

00:59Yeah, take a couple of it. That's great.

01:02Going from this.

01:03Now we just have to edit it.

01:05To this.

01:06Looking like the perfect targets.

01:09Young boys.

01:10For an alarming blackmail scheme.

01:13We set up fake names, add photos, and post comments.

01:17Just to make the accounts look lived in.

01:19Follow popular accounts, dating apps, chat networks.

01:23It says follow for more.

01:25Because the scammers look through follower lists to find their victims.

01:29So I have someone following me already.

01:32It's been like seconds.

01:34That's how sextortion begins.

01:36These criminals pose as young girls and lure boys into sending a nude photo.

01:41Then they blackmail them.

01:43Oh, Bella's talking to me.

01:45She says hi.

01:46Bella's now messaging two of our accounts at the same time.

01:50Look at that, just bored.

01:52Can we be friends?

01:54What we're doing is just a test.

01:56We know there are families across Canada living with the brutal reality of sextortion.

02:01We're in Bay Fortune, Prince Edward Island.

02:08Happy birthday, dear Harry.

02:11Happy birthday to you and many more.

02:16Hey, Rhines.

02:18Carly, did wag your tail while we were singing?

02:20We meet Carl Burke and Barbie Lavers, their 17-year-old son, Harry, a sextortion victim.

02:28Yeah, so this is an area in the house that the boys had confiscated.

02:32It became the man cave.

02:36Harry's presence is felt everywhere.

02:38This is actually Harry's room.

02:40Yeah, so this is where Harry spent his time.

02:42His room, filled with reminders of dreams unrealized.

02:47Those are his military boots that he was using when he was in the reserves.

02:51And I wear them when I'm doing stuff during the day just to feel closer to him, right?

02:58Absolutely.

02:58Yeah.

02:59Hi, Harry Burke.

03:00He loved being a cadet.

03:03He said, I want to make Canada better.

03:05And this was the way he figured that he could do that.

03:08He was standing right here.

03:09Yeah.

03:09When he told us that.

03:10And I really feel he would have.

03:12But that was taken away.

03:19Harry and I spent that day together.

03:21We had done father-son things.

03:23He tells his dad about a girl he's messaging on Instagram.

03:27Harry had come to me sometime in the afternoon to say he was talking to this girl around his age from Nova Scotia.

03:35And he showed me her picture.

03:37And it all seemed very real.

03:40But Harry's situation unravels quickly.

03:44He confides in his dad.

03:46That evening, Harry came to me and he said, Dad, I screwed up.

03:51And I said, what do you mean?

03:52And he said, well, I shared pictures.

03:55And he said, they're looking for money.

03:57And I said, we can't send the money, Harry.

04:00I knew what extortion meant.

04:02I said, they'll just keep asking for more.

04:05They call a family meeting.

04:07Harry was sitting right there and I was there.

04:09Barbie was here.

04:09Harry explained to mom what had happened.

04:12And during that conversation, we were all upset.

04:18And Barbie actually got a message.

04:23On Instagram from the same person.

04:26This individual that said, I'm going to destroy him.

04:32And I wish Harry had never seen the message.

04:37They make a plan to call police in the morning.

04:40Harry's parents don't know he's still being hounded well into the night.

04:44The scammer sends his photo to other cadets and threatens to send it to his commanding officer.

04:50In Harry's mind, he figured everything that he had worked so hard for was gone.

04:55He figured this would interfere with his chances within the PEI regiment to go to the Royal Military College and become an officer.

05:05I just feel so, he was sitting in the garage and I said, what are you doing?

05:13And he said, oh, I'm just writing some thoughts.

05:16And I didn't ask him what he was writing.

05:18Try to be respectful.

05:21But it wasn't uncommon for Harry to journal.

05:24He did do that.

05:25So we talked for a minute.

05:28And I went to the door.

05:30And I turned around and I said, I love you, Harry.

05:33He said, I love you, mom.

05:35He was writing his note.

05:38I didn't ask him what he was writing.

05:41If I had asked him.

05:45So there's a lot of blame.

05:46Self-blame that we have.

05:47We don't blame each other.

05:48But it's the guilt.

05:51That we carry.

05:52Every day.

05:55Harry dies by suicide.

05:58Less than 12 hours after connecting with his scammer.

06:05Sextortion is on the rise.

06:07With Canada's child exploitation tip line, CyberTip, telling us it receives 50 to 80 reports a week.

06:13While girls are targeted too, 85% of victims are boys.

06:18And Harry is one of more than 50 boys across North America, Australia, and the UK who have died by suicide.

06:25In Canada, since 2021, there's Daniel Lintz from Manitoba.

06:32William Duaron from New Brunswick.

06:36Carson Cleland from Northern B.C.

06:38And this 14-year-old from Southern B.C.

06:42These are just the reported tragedies.

06:45Experts warn the unreported cases could be much higher.

06:48Paul Raphael is a cybercrime analyst and leading expert on sextortion.

06:59There's no other scam that I think even compares to this.

07:02Paul's poured through hundreds of conversations with sextorters.

07:07We ask him to analyze ours.

07:10Yeah, so interestingly enough, I have actually seen this profile picture before using the name Bella.

07:15Yes.

07:16And this, with 100% certainty, is a sextorter.

07:20Because look at that.

07:21She kept pushing us off Instagram.

07:23So these criminals very quickly try to take their targets to usually an encrypted messaging platform

07:30to try to make sure that their Instagram account doesn't get banned immediately.

07:35This scammer, Bella, does exactly that.

07:38So she says, wow, you are looking good.

07:41The replies keep coming.

07:43Can we have some fun?

07:45And then she says, show me your d*** and I will send you my full naked video in return.

07:51And we're not going to do that.

07:54I think we're going to have to shut this one down.

07:56Yeah.

07:56The conversations get explicit.

07:59In just 24 hours, seven separate accounts ask us for news.

08:05Later, in a stunning twist, another scammer messages us.

08:10He grabs our headshot, alters it with an intimate image to sextort us.

08:15Answer me right now.

08:17Four, five.

08:18He's running a countdown, demands a $50 gift card.

08:21Don't try me.

08:22Angry face.

08:24He's threatening to post the picture online.

08:27How much you have in cash or bank?

08:30Answer me.

08:32Then he calls us.

08:34Hello?

08:35You want me to get an empty answer?

08:38I don't have any money.

08:42How can I pay you?

08:45I don't have...

08:46He hung up.

08:48When he calls again, we reveal who we are.

08:52Listen, my name is Asha Tomlinson.

08:54I'm a journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto.

09:00We know that you're sextorting us.

09:03This was a fake profile.

09:05He hung up.

09:06As for Bella, she leaves a clue about her real identity when she texts us from a Nigerian

09:12number.

09:13So we call.

09:14What's your name?

09:15My name is John.

09:16Okay.

09:17And so you have the profile set up as Bella, right?

09:22Yeah.

09:23I'm just...

09:23What do you want to pick up?

09:25I guess I'm just trying to understand why you scam people.

09:30Because people don't have money.

09:32You don't have money?

09:34Yeah.

09:34We know a lot of the financial sextortion scams right now are coming from West Africa,

09:39specifically Nigeria.

09:41In fact, most Canadian deaths have links to Nigeria.

09:45This isn't just a public safety emergency, but this is also a national security emergency

09:50too.

09:53Coming up, we confront one of the Yahoo boys.

09:56So you don't ever wonder if the person on the other end is suffering because of the scamming

10:03that you've done.

10:10The following program contains mature subject matter.

10:14Viewer discretion is advised.

10:15It's a scheme that lures Canadian teens.

10:23They don't just target one person at any given time.

10:25They target as many people as they can reach out to.

10:28Into sending compromising photos.

10:31Then, those images are used for blackmail.

10:35We create fake profiles and seven scammers ask us to send news in just 24 hours.

10:42Predators can reel kids in within minutes.

10:45And some, once they're in it, feel there's no way out.

10:48In Prince George, British Columbia, Ryan Cleland and his daughter Michaela are still trying

10:58to make sense of it all.

11:00I had spoken with Carson about sextortion online and what to do if it happens.

11:05Ryan wonders how his fun-loving, caring 12-year-old boy Carson got caught up in the unthinkable.

11:12How did that conversation go?

11:14It was awkward.

11:16Very awkward.

11:18He said, if you ever send somebody a picture of your penis, God, I wouldn't.

11:22I said, well, just, if you do, and they want money, just come get me.

11:29Don't send money.

11:30Don't panic.

11:31Don't freak out.

11:32Come get me.

11:32We'll deal with it.

11:33In October 2023, Carson meets who he thinks is a girl on Snapchat.

11:39They start chatting in the morning.

11:42During their conversation, Carson sends a nude photo.

11:45He knew what to do.

11:48He just couldn't think past his fear.

11:50After just 12 hours, Carson takes his own life.

11:55He just, he just panicked.

11:59Recalling that day, Ryan says Carson left school early, telling his sister he wasn't feeling well.

12:04I only just found out that Carson actually went to the store that day and bought a gift card and sent it to them.

12:11So he did pay the scammer.

12:14In search of answers, Carson's sister, Michaela, decides to read the police report.

12:29He actually did go to the store and buy a gift card.

12:33They used it.

12:34And then, like, said that it didn't work.

12:37And to buy another one, he had obviously gotten, like, a lot more, like, scared and, like, kind of frantic with the way he was responding and stuff.

12:45Did you get a sense of the pressure building for him?

12:50Yeah, you could definitely tell how, like, scared and, like, kind of, like, stressed out he was getting and, like, get a sense of how he would have felt through those messages when you can really see them.

12:59It's definitely the hardest part about that.

13:03Carson wasn't the only one victimized.

13:22Some of his classmates were also targeted at this school.

13:25In blackmailing, BM, we discover dozens of online groups sharing strategies and inside information on what's known as the BM scam, which stands for blackmail.

13:41Let's go in there and check that group out.

13:44We enter their forums undercover to see how they recruit new scammers.

13:48Right there, he's saying it's blackmailing.

13:51He's admitting what he's doing.

13:53They call themselves the Yahoo Boys, and they're based in Nigeria, showing off the money they make on social media.

14:02So your deal with him is to take 70% of his salary.

14:05That's how BM works.

14:07Like, the client must keep paying every month.

14:10We find a Yahoo Boy willing to talk.

14:13We're not revealing his identity because he fears for his safety.

14:17At first, he denies being involved in the BM scam, but then...

14:22I'm just wondering if you've run the BM scam before.

14:25Yeah, most times. Not every time.

14:28Not every time?

14:29Yes.

14:30He's based in Lagos, a hotbed for cybercrime.

14:33Well, I would say it's very big, very, very large.

14:37It's very hard to find a job.

14:38So I just need something doing to survive.

14:41So you don't ever wonder if the person on the other end is suffering because of the scamming that you've done.

14:50Yeah, let me just... I don't know what to answer to that.

14:54We also speak with a man who's left that life behind.

14:57I felt so bad after what I've done. I felt so bad.

15:01He wants to remain anonymous because of security risks.

15:05In my case, I wanted to go to the realm, you know, of becoming a billionaire.

15:10But then you have to be diabolic.

15:13He says he was a Yahoo Boy for a decade before the BM scam gains traction.

15:19Now, he says he's a pastor, warning young Nigerian men about the dangers.

15:24Do you think that they know that, that they're driving some people to kill themselves because they've been scammed?

15:31So many of those people, they've sold their soul to the devil. They don't care.

15:39Coming up, we put the pressure on the Minister of Justice.

15:43We spoke to the families of two teen boys who took their lives.

15:47They feel like there's been no real action from government.

15:52What is your message to them?

15:53The following program contains mature subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised.

16:10Families broken.

16:11Your heart hurts so bad.

16:13By a financial scam that manipulates boys into sharing nude photographs.

16:18And then they're blackmailed.

16:20Just pay me $50.

16:21They fine them on social media, coerce them on messaging apps.

16:26You got Telegram?

16:27Applying pressure until they break.

16:30Some have taken their lives.

16:32And now their parents want accountability.

16:36Cybercrime expert Paul Raphael says it's on social media companies to act.

16:40We know that the primary source of leverage that these criminals use is the followers' lists.

16:47The moment that a victim accepts a criminal's follow request, their entire social network is compromised.

16:52Ultimately, it comes down to a fake account problem.

16:55And platforms are very resistant to block or prevent the creation of new fake accounts.

17:00We reach out to the platforms.

17:03They all say sexual exploitation is against their terms of use.

17:07They remove accounts when users report it and proactively look for bad actors.

17:13Meta and Snapchat add they do work with law enforcement and send pop-up warnings about suspicious accounts.

17:19TikTok says teens under 16 don't have access to direct messaging.

17:24And Telegram makes it a point to say it is impossible for any platform to remove all criminal content.

17:32Carl says that's not good enough.

17:35The only way they'll ever change and do enough is if they're forced into doing it.

17:39Our lives will never be the same.

17:42And it sickens me, the attention that social media has given it, which is nothing.

17:48Absolutely nothing.

17:50It's like your kids don't matter.

17:52We look at an empty chair and an empty bed and our son is in an urn beside our bed.

17:58That's where our boy is, forever.

18:01They want the government to step in.

18:03Earlier this year, Prime Minister Mark Carney campaigns on better protecting kids from online harm.

18:11My government will act to protect children online and bring those who seek to harm them to justice.

18:17And the man in charge of fulfilling those promises?

18:21Justice Minister Sean Fraser.

18:23For weeks, we try to get an on-camera interview.

18:26He finally agrees to talk to us over the phone.

18:30Minister Fraser, good to talk to you.

18:31Thanks very much for reaching out.

18:34The Liberal government committed to protecting youth online.

18:38They've campaigned on it as well.

18:40You've been in office for six months.

18:41What's happening?

18:42We will be moving forward with legislation to modify the criminal justice system in a number of ways,

18:49designed to help protect kids online.

18:52In particular, you should expect to see the first steps taken in the fall sitting.

18:58We spoke to the families of Carson Cleland and Harry Burke, two teen boys who took their lives after being sextorted.

19:07They feel like there's been no real action from government.

19:12They want to see it.

19:13What is your message to them?

19:15Dealing with the loss of a child is the most profound grief that a family can experience.

19:22We want to do what we can as a federal government to change the laws where they are not working.

19:29What people should expect to see, in short order, is new criminal legislation that's going to address child luring,

19:37that's going to address non-consensual sharing of intimate images, of deepfakes,

19:41that's going to specifically address online sexploitation and extortion of kids,

19:47in addition to new tools that we want to give to law enforcement to prevent this crime.

19:53In the meantime, victims are finding support in each other.

19:57I was in that suicidal state of mind.

20:00We're hiding this young man's identity to protect him from being re-victimized.

20:05We're calling him Kyle.

20:06The difference was maybe I didn't have the capability of doing something to myself, but other people do.

20:12When Kyle is sextorted in 2021, he goes to a dark place,

20:17but finds his way out by helping other victims in a Reddit community.

20:21I would check in with them daily, especially with the people who were suicidal.

20:26I'm like, I want you to check in with me every hour on the hour.

20:30He has this advice for those going through it now.

20:33I know it's hard at first.

20:35I was there, calmed down, realized that this is very insignificant.

20:39Even if they had your face, there is someone who would care enough to understand.

20:47Carl is also finding purpose in his community.

20:50We didn't know anything about it through the school system or through any sort of police involvement.

20:56He's speaking to schools across PEI, raising awareness.

21:00I've spoken to over 5,000 children so far, and the kids that come to talk to me,

21:06they come in groups, they come in pairs, they come one at a time.

21:12They're tearful, they're heartfelt, they want a hug.

21:16They thank me for what they've learned.

21:19And the stuff I'm talking about, they knew nothing about.

21:22I do it because of Harry.

21:24I don't want his name forgotten.

21:25I don't want his name forgotten.

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