How Cyber Sleuths Tracked a Nigerian Scammer to His Doorstep

Erin West and Paul Raffile are experts in fighting online scams. They decided to flip the script: pose as victims, let the scammers try to defraud them, and then follow the digital breadcrumbs back to the scammers' doorstep.

Setting a honeypot

They created fake Instagram and Snapchat accounts pretending to be teenagers. Within days, the DMs rolled in. The scammers, posing as young women, demanded explicit videos and then threatened to leak them unless they were paid off.

Reverse tracking: from IP to GPS

West and Raffile played along, but when the scammers asked for payment in Bitcoin, they sent a link that, once clicked, would reveal the scammers' IP address—and even turn on the camera. They managed to get a scammer's face and phone number, traced it to his social media, and finally got a GPS coordinate.

Showing up at his door

They flew to Nigeria and found the village where the scammer lived. The scammer refused to meet them. West told him over the phone: we know who you are, we know where you live, and the next step is handing this over to the FBI. Soon after, the scammer's social media accounts went dark.