Format Boy is a mystery. No name, no face, no apologies.
Format Boy is a teacher, coach and content creator. He is an influencer of sorts, but he does not peddle lifestyle tips, inspirational quotes, or paid partnerships. He provides ‘format’ for Yahoo Boys.
A digital tutor for digital crime
Format Boy has cultivated a loyal audience of thousands across YouTube, Telegram, Instagram, and X. His videos often garner tens of thousands of views. His specialty? Breaking down “formats”—scam templates used to deceive victims globally, especially in the U.S. and U.K.
Formats are the lifeblood of the Yahoo Boys. There’s a format for every occasion: romance scams, fake investment pitches, impersonating law enforcement, even mimicking Elon Musk. It’s from this terminology that Format Boy gets his name.
He doesn’t just explain how scams work, he also demonstrates them. His most-watched YouTube videos detail how to stage fake video calls using deepfake software. He walks viewers through crafting believable personas, editing AI-generated media, and psychologically manipulating victims, who are often referred to in scammer slang as “clients.”
“These fake calls are very important,” he says in one Telegram voice note. “Sometimes, your clients won’t give you what you need unless they see you.”
Format Boy started around 2019 with a cheap smartphone and a hustle mentality. He initially spammed dating sites, seeking victims. Eventually, he saw more profit in teaching others the art—and selling the tools to do it.
Today, his Telegram channel has over 15,000 subscribers, and his posts cover everything from building trust with victims to using AI to mask your identity.
It’s all cloaked in the language of hustle culture. His voice notes are often motivational: “If you plan well, you will succeed well,” he says. “I’m not trying to play teacher. I’m trying to push you to your next level.”
To his followers, he’s a visionary. To cybercrime experts, he’s a dangerous scamfluencer.
A complicated justification
Despite his role, Format Boy insists he’s no longer involved in scams himself. “At some point I was doing it,” he admits, “but I stopped. I moved into video editing and AI research.”
He also claims to have limits: “I don’t teach everything, even if they pay,” he says. “Because it’s not the right thing to do.” Still, he admits the material he posts can, and does, help people commit crimes.
He positions his work as a response to economic desperation. “A lot of people here don’t get help from the government,” he tells me. “This is why I teach, so they can try something different, just for a while.”
Format Boy has faced resistance online. His YouTube accounts have been repeatedly shut down, resetting his following each time. But he adapts. When one platform tightens restrictions, he leans harder into Telegram, where voice notes and promotions, like discounts on deepfake software, flow freely.
In December 2023, he complained about impersonators creating fake accounts under his name. In early 2024, he threatened to quit entirely, citing burnout. Three days later, he was back. These days, he says he’s diversifying again by dabbling in memecoin trading.
The bigger picture
Format Boy is just one figure in a much larger and increasingly tech-savvy ecosystem of digital fraud. But his visibility makes him a lightning rod for concern. He embodies the collision between underemployment, digital creativity, and moral ambiguity.
Whether you see him as a product of a broken system or a dangerous opportunist, one thing is clear: Format Boy is a mirror to an uncomfortable digital reality, and he’s not going away anytime soon.
