Internet scammers, also referred to as ?Yahoo boys? or ?G-boys?, are increasingly participating in evil ?Yahoo Plus? rituals that involve human sacrifices and supernatural practices in order to increase their criminal success, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has warned.

The EFCC made this warning in a post on X, stating, ?G-boys are now going spiritual, involving themselves in rituals and making it the new usual. EFCC will come for any individual. Then, it won?t be business as usual.?

Public reaction on social media to the EFCC?s announcement was mixed. One user, @Hajimuba504, commented, ?At this point EFCC needs a deliverance department to make Pastor join task force. Una go soon add ?Chief Priest? to recruitment list no worry.?

@Odenigbo511 wrote, ?EFCC, Our GDP was 800 Billion in 2014. Some people have looted it to 150 Billion in 2025 And its not yahoo boys, But you havent prosecuted anyone.?

Another user, @Raypowerjustice, wrote, ?Shameless criminal entity that can?t account for all the Cars, phones, laptops, money and houses they seized. Where is Yahaya Bello? Politicians are your best friends, young boys are your enemies. You have resigned yet fake pastor Chairman.?

For a decade, ?Yahoo boys? has been a popular Nigerian term for young men involved in internet fraud, using various scams like phishing, romance fraud, fake business deals, and identity theft to steal money, often from victims abroad.

These fraudsters gained their nickname because many early scammers used Yahoo email accounts as a primary communication tool.

The term ?G-boys? is a slang that implies a more flamboyant lifestyle associated with the fraudsters, often characterised by flashy clothes, expensive cars, and social media displays of wealth.

As the public becomes more aware of traditional scams and organisations like the EFCC crack down on them, scammers are taking more drastic tactics.

Many have turned to spiritual and mystical rituals to increase their chances of success, a phenomenon known as ?Yahoo Plus?.

This new wave combines conventional cybercrime methods such as phishing, romance scams, and business email compromise with voodoo and occult practices.

Rituals reportedly include using items like used sanitary pads to protect scammers from detection and enhance their wealth.

The darker variant involves kidnapping, human sacrifices, harvesting body parts, and bizarre rituals such as ?sex with ghosts.?

Reports indicate that witch doctors guide scammers on the specific body parts needed for their rituals. For example, to sabotage data in large computer networks or carry out business espionage, certain body parts like two left eyes and a young woman?s left breast (not older than 25) are required to prepare black magic potions.

A French woman named Anne Deneuchatel wrote a book titled Je ne serai plus une proie, or ?I Will No Longer Be a Prey,? detailing how she was tricked, coerced, and ultimately defrauded of over ?700,000 by con artists posing as Brad Pitt, a Hollywood star, in a high-profile case that was publicised earlier this year.

She reveals in the book how scammers posing as Hollywood actor Brad Pitt swept her into a digital romance that was equal parts intoxicating and destructive over the course of 14 months, from April 2023 to June 2024.

The scammers claimed the actor urgently needed money for kidney treatment, stating his bank accounts were frozen due to divorce proceedings with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie.

Anne reportedly lost ?830,000 ($850,000) in the scam, according to her lawyer Laurene Hanna.

In April, the Lagos State Police Command uncovered and dismantled an illegal internet fraud training facility, known as a ?Yahoo School?, in the Iju area of the state.

The command?s spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, stated that four principal suspects were arrested alongside six trainees.

According to him, among the trainees was an underaged boy identified as Minachi Udochukwu.

The statement read in part, ?During the successful operations, the police detectives arrested four Yahoo experts who were running the notorious school, namely Chibuike Ihejika, 23; Stanley Ihejika, 22; Obiora Oyediba, 26; and Emmanuel Oyedibe, 25.

?The other six suspects are their criminal trainees, all of whom were undergoing training in cybercrime and fraud: Okorie Henry, Otoh Chisom, 20; Okeke Kwufrochikwu, 26; Uchenna Obeji, 26; Minachi Udochukwu, 12; and Chinedu Ukachukwu, 23.

?Preliminary investigations revealed that the principal suspects of the facility recruited their trainees from Anambra State, engaged them to commit internet fraud and other related crimes.

?The proceeds from their fraudulent activities were being confiscated by the principal suspects.? (The Guardian, excluding headline)

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