We expose a network of overseas scammers targeting and blackmailing teens, and in some cases, driving them to suicide within hours of falling into a trap known as ‘sextortion’. We create fake social media profiles to investigate the business behind the blackmail.

Warning: This story deals with suicide.

For self-proclaimed scammer "John," luring foreigners into sending him money is a full-time job.

"We look for them through Facebook or Instagram," he told CBC's Marketplace. "We look through celebrities' accounts, followers' accounts, then we add them."

He's one of Nigeria's "Yahoo Boys," whose scams include coercing teens into sending nude photos of themselves, then using that to blackmail them for money.

John, which is not his real name, lives in Lagos, and agreed to speak to Marketplace confidentially so that we could get insight into how these scammers are able to do what they do.

For the full investigation, watch 'The Sextortion Network' on Friday at 8 p.m. (8:30 in N.L.) on YouTube, CBC TV and CBC Gem.

Experts say this type of sexual extortion — or sextortion — scheme has exploded in Canada since 2021. CBC was able to verify that more than 40 suicides across North America, Australia and U.K. in the last four years were linked to sextortion — five of them in Canada.

"I think this is the worst scam in the world," said Paul Raffile, a sextortion and cybercrime researcher based in Connecticut. "There is no other scam that involves targeting children, coercing them into a sexually compromising situation, exploiting them, blackmailing them. There's no other scams that I think even compare to this."

On social media, Yahoo Boys brag about the money they make scamming others, dancing