A growing number of teenage boys in the U.S. are being targeted by large-scale financial sextortion schemes. This week, Elisa sits down with cybercrime expert Paul Raffile to uncover the scale and tactics behind this global blackmail operation, how social media platforms are enabling it, and what it means for the future of America’s workforce. From loneliness to digital manipulation, they explore how the vulnerabilities of young men today could shape national security readiness tomorrow.

Paul Raffile is a cyber intelligence analyst focused on global cyber threats and transnational organized crime.

References:

Financial Sextortion Backgrounder Raffile, Paul, et al. A Digital Pandemic: Uncovering the Role of ‘Yahoo Boys’ in the Surge of Social Media-Enabled Financial Sextortion Targeting Minors. Network Contagion Research Institute, Jan. 2024.

Haidt, Jonathan. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Penguin Press, 2024.

Reeves, Richard V. Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It. Brookings Institution Press, 2022.

New Sextortion Data, NCMEC

The Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act

The Take it Down Act

FISA Section 230