How Cyber Sleuths Tracked a Nigerian Scammer to His Doorstep

Erin West and Paul Raffile, experts in cybercrime, embarked on a journey to Nigeria to locate a notorious scammer. The duo began their mission by setting up a decoy Instagram and Snapchat account, posing as vulnerable young individuals. Within days, they began receiving calls from scammers demanding money.

The scammers, pretending to be young women, often used photos stolen from OnlyFans models. The pair paid the scammers in Bitcoin, sending them links to websites that secretly recorded the scammers' IP addresses. This allowed West and Raffile to trace the scammers back to their location in Lagos, Nigeria.

Upon arrival, the experts utilized the IP address tracking tool to capture one of the scammers' faces and phone number. They shared the phone number with TrueCaller, which identified the scammer as "Big Dollar." West also disclosed the number to other contacts, who conducted further investigations, revealing Big Dollar's real name.

The team obtained GPS coordinates of Big Dollar's village and made a daring approach, informing him, "We know who you are, we know where you live, and we're going to give this information to the FBI." Big Dollar subsequently removed his social media accounts. West expressed her astonishment at the rapid response of the scammers, who were evidently terrified of being apprehended.