LURKING in UK bedrooms, a toxic band of teenage predators coerce young girls into cutting themselves and sending explicit pictures, with some even encouraging their child victims to take their own lives.
The teens, aged between 14 and 17, are part of a network of sick groups known as “The Com”, who are targeting girls for sexual exploitation, toxic and self-harm – persuading them to cut and occult emblems into their skin.
They are also sharing a ‘pervert’s handbook’ which gives them to hack into girls’ social media accounts and access twisted content on the dark web.
Chillingly, this is no ‘ordinary' organised crime gang. Rather, experts explain how The Com is formed of groups of brought together from all corners of the internet, including in video game chat rooms.
Often intelligent and knowledgeable about criminal practices including hacking, they use their skills not just to earn money through cyber crime, but inflict misery upon other unsuspecting young internet users in a bid to impress their peers.
Today Flying Eze can reveal extreme cases carried out by The Com gangs, who also indulge in a new trend called swatting – making vile hoax calls to cops to get revenge on their rivals.
We have been briefed by cyber experts at the – the UK’s answer to the FBI – on how the gangs are also hacking into companies, nicking data and – in one case – stealing “enough to buy a luxury .”;
Rob Richardson, head of the NCA’s fight against The Com networks, said: “Unusually, as in other serious and organised crime threats, there's no Mr Big behind these groups.
“This is children abusing other children. It’s an unprecedented threat.
“We need to try and understand how an eight-year-old boy playing online games with his mates is, for instance, six years later threatening to kill his family, persuading girls online to cut themselves and coaxing a boy in the US to shoot himself.”;
The problem of boys' toxic behaviour online was highlighted in the recent drama , which starred Owen Cooper as a 13-year-old who stabbed a female classmate after being drawn into misogynistic incel sites.
And NCA experts say The Com (short for community) groups are usually social outsiders who find each other through toxic platforms and messaging services.
Over the last two years, the NCA has seen a six-fold increase in reports of Com-related crimes – which include dangerous hoaxes involving doxxing and swatting.
Doxxing sees addresses released online, while swatting involves placing hoax calls to cops under a rival's name.
NCA intelligence manager Martin Ramsell told us: “It’s a trend that has come from America but we’ve seen a spate of these cases in the UK recently.
“It usually happens because of some dispute between criminal gangs who then pose as their victim.
“The level of these threats can be very extreme, and I don’t exaggerate that.
“We’ve had one where a young lad was sending emails in someone else's name – saying ‘I’m going to cut the teacher’s throat in front of the children, then I’m going to start murdering children until someone stops me'.
“They’re very graphic. The then respond to that threat and got to the house of the victim.”;
Narrow escape
Brit narrowly escaped jail last year after ‘swatting’ an innocent American who was shot in the face by armed cops.
The 28-year-old, of , rang a terrorism hotline in Maryland, claiming his victim Tyran Dobbs had explosives and was holding hostages.
When cops burst into Dobbs’ home in 2015 he was shot twice in the face with plastic bullets and needed plastic surgery.
Warwick Crown Court heard how Walker-McDaid was persuaded to make the hoax call by Maryland local Zachary Lee, who he met while playing video games online.
Walker-McDaid admitted perverting the course of justice and was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.
In another case, Andrew Finch, 28, was shot dead by a Swat team after a prank call claiming a father had been murdered and three people were being held hostage at his Wichita home.
The 2017 swatting stemmed from a dispute over a $1.50 wager on an online game of Call of Duty.
Serial swatter Tyler Barriss was later jailed for 20 to 25 years for his role in Finch's death and 50 other charges related to swatting calls.
Company hacks
Martin says young UK hackers from the community are also capable of infiltrating companies, stealing data and cryptocurrency.
He said: “Some are linked to the theft of currency, some data extortion, some sextortion, threatening to share intimate pictures of young women.
“Our domestic hackers are nowhere near as sophisticated as some overseas organisations and a bit more opportunistic.
“They are young but quite capable of finding a way into a network and, once inside, they know how to move around, where look, what to steal and how to try and erase their traces.
These boys are persuading girls to take drugs, alcohol, poisonous substances and, in some cases, cut themselves
Rob Richardson, NCA
“I know there are lads with millions in cryptocurrency, enough to buy a luxury yacht, but it’s not easy to spend and they end up just buying sneakers and .
“It’s not all about the money for them anyway, it’s a way of keeping score.
“While traditional criminals want the trappings of a rich lifestyle, if you’re 16, 17, 18, it’s all about your standing in your little online community, giving yourself a six or seven figure rating.”;
The most sinister side of The Com gangs sees them exploit girls and young women, stealing their images from social media and blackmailing them or persuading them to self-harm.
Rob Richardson said: “There’s an exchange of a kind of ‘lore book’ online, a guide to sharing information about victims that enable offenders to dox or swat, techniques on how to identify harmful material and how to get on to the dark web.
“The frightening thing is the level of coercion that goes on.
Nazi symbols
“These boys are persuading girls to take drugs, alcohol, poisonous substances and, in some cases, cut themselves.
“We’ve seen cases of girls who have been persuaded to cut the group’s name or emblem, including occult and Nazi symbols, into their skin, then use the blood to write on a wall.
“The level of coercion is such that when police attend the girls’ homes to safeguard them, they don’t see anything wrong with posting gory images online and say, ‘What’s the problem,? It’s just a laugh'.”;
One mum told Sky News her daughter, Mary*, was targeted at 12 and manipulated into sending self-harm and child sexual abuse content.
She stopped sleeping, lost weight and, as her mum later discovered, was left covered in scars from self-harming.
[The Com] prey on vulnerable kids who are easier to manipulate… then start threatening them and demanding more extreme content
Victim's mum
Mary pretended to be watching YouTube in the middle of the night when she was actually in contact with The Com and, if her devices were taken away, she threatened suicide.
“I was so frightened of her dying that most of the time I chose to believe her,” says her mum.
“She had to be in contact around the clock or suffer the consequences.
“[The Com] prey on vulnerable kids who are easier to manipulate… then start threatening them and demanding more extreme content.”
In January, 19-year-old Finnigan from West Sussex was jailed for six years after committing crimes through the Com, which is formed by more than a dozen subgroups sharing an interest in violence and abuse.
Finnegan was part of the 764, a global group who target children for online abuse and encourage self-harm and suicide.
They are also linked to the Satanic, neo-Nazi terror organisation Order of the Nine Angles.
When one victim revealed she was having suicidal thoughts, Finnegan encouraged her to livestream her suicide – an act which would have been a badge of honour for him, had she gone through with it.
He was also thought to have been planning to murder a homeless man, as proof of violent acts also boosts status with The Com groups.
He was found guilty of possessing a terror manual, indecent images of a child and encouraging suicide.
The NCA’s annual national strategic assessment said the groups “routinely share harmful content and extremist or misogynistic rhetoric”;.
Martin said most of those attracted to the online communities were probably seen as outsiders at school – many with neurodiverse issues like .
He said The Com groups were shaken in 2023 when a prolific hacker was detained under the mental health act.
Arion Kurtaj, now 20, of , leaked clips of a forthcoming game as a key member of a national gang called Lapsus$.
Kurtaj, who also hacked BT, EE and Travelodge, was sent to hospital care after his desire to commit cyber-crime meant he “remained a high risk to the public”;.
Martin said academics, experts, and government agencies were now pulling together to try to detect how kids end up engaging in online criminality.
Robert added: “Those working working at the NCA in this field who have children have taken a different approach to their kids' social media access.
“One of the questions we ask ourselves is ‘what would the public do about their kids’ online activity if they knew what we knew?’
“We tell our children not to talk to strangers, but then allow them to walk around with a device that allows them to speak to anyone around the world at any time of the day.
“I'd encourage parents to have regular conversations with their child about what they do online, better understanding their world, and ensure they know they have your support should they need it.”
*Name has been changed
