Artificial intelligence to change faces and voices, the Yahoo Boys' key to their million-dollar scams

In the era of deepfakes and the use of artificial intelligence for criminal activities, the Yahoo Boys are positioned at the top of the pyramid using this technology for all types of scams and manipulations.

It can be said that in recent years the connections between people have evolved to a point where talking to a friend or family member who lives on the other side of the world is something that no one is surprised by. The problem comes when scammers take this method and add some technology to carry out not very legal activities.

Imagine this situation for a moment: a seemingly normal video call in which two people are chatting. But what happens when the reality shown on that screen is nothing more than an illusion, a deception created to perfection?

Operating from any corner of the world, a group of scammers in their 20s and 30s, mainly from Nigeria, Ghana or Togo, known as the Yahoo Boys, have been using increasingly advanced tactics to deceive their victims. What were once simple emails to extract money have evolved into much more dangerous terrain: deepfakes or videos, images or sounds, created with artificial intelligence.

In the case of the Yahoo Boys, they use this technology to seduce their targets into romance scams. How do they do that? They use fake identities on Instagram, Facebook or Tinder to manipulate their victims and then create real-time video calls, where they can see what they believe is their true face. However, Behind that screen hides a scammer disguised but not with other clothes but with AI.

It is estimated that they have assets that would exceed 700 million euros due to scams

Through applications and software that you can find on the Internet in a very simple way, they are capable of changing their faces in real time, thus generating a truly credible illusion for the victims.. Considering the quality of these tools today, it is actually quite realistic.

As if this were not enough, they use social networks as a recruiting and advertising tool, sharing all their successes and tricks to attract others to do the same. They also have groups on apps like Telegram, where they organize and share how they have carried out the scams, thus creating a collaboration network.

But be careful because modus operandi of the Yahoo Boys goes beyond romance scams. From phishing to manipulating people, these scammers are experts at their game. They usually use their own voice, but they also do not skimp on reinventing themselves and also using AI to manipulate it.

David Maimon, professor and fraud expert, comments on all these acts with Wired. “I don't think they're doing this because they're stupid,” she says. “I think they just don't care and aren't afraid of the repercussions.”