#255 Ryan Montgomery – Roblox & Minecraft: Hacker Exposes the Largest Online Video Games

Kaya Henderson and Myles E. Johnson delve into the disturbing world of the 764 Group, a predatory cult leveraging technology to exploit and harm children.

Structure and Origin of the 764 Group

The 764 Group, notorious for its extreme violence against children, started in Texas by a 15-year-old nonverbal boy who began luring minors from Minecraft into sextortion and self-harm.

Texas Boy Lured Minors From Minecraft

A 15-year-old boy in Texas started the 764 Group, an organization that quickly extended its reach online by targeting minors through popular games such as Minecraft, coercing them into harmful activities.

764 Group: A Satanist Cult Focused On Extreme Violence Toward Children

Ryan Montgomery and Shawn, while discussing their grim discovery, pointed to the 764 Group as a satanic cult, focused on sextortion of children and advocating for extreme violence. The cult's activities included disturbing acts such as requesting minors to sell their souls and commit violent and abusive behaviors.

Affiliated Groups With Similar Goals and Tactics

The 764 Group, influenced by the Order of Nine Angles—a group combining Satanism, neo-Nazi beliefs, and occultism—operates with offshoots, offering malicious services like bricking, swatting, and doxing while preying on young victims.

Tactics Used by 764 Group and Cults

These cults employ a range of methods to groom and exploit their young targets.

Grooming and Luring Children Online

Members of the 764 group exploit online platforms to target vulnerable minors. For example, they hijack mental health forums and music discussion pages to pose as supportive friends, guiding unsuspecting victims like Elliot, a 14-year-old boy, toward gore sites which led to self-harm.

Coercing Victims Into Self-Harm, Animal Abuse, and Crime

The 764 Group coerces victims into engraving names or satanic symbols into their skin and pushes them to commit acts of animal cruelty. In one case, a member directed a girl named Eve to mutilate herself and harm her pet as evidence of loyalty.

Encrypted Chat and "Proof of Crime" for Membership

Gaining entry into the 764 Group demands proof of crime. Victims are forced to commit acts of violence, often shared via encrypted communication channels such as Discord, which the group uses to orchestrate their actions and recruit new members.

Promoting a Nihilistic, Anti-Empathy Ideology to Justify Actions

The group promotes a nihilistic approach, with the belief that no lives matter, ...

Online predators employ a range of tactics to exploit children, creating environments of trust before escalating to demands that can include extortion, coercion, and violence.

Grooming and Luring Tactics

Predators often present themselves as supportive friends or partners to gain the trust of their victims. They may infiltrate communities offering solace to those experiencing mental health struggles or social isolation. As friends or mentors, such as a guidance counselor in the case of Ryan Montgomery when he was 14 or 15 years old, predators can build personal connections and facilitate attachments to manipulate their victims. Members of the 764 group, for instance, pose as caring individuals to lure victims, like Elliot and Eve, from mental health forums before exploiting them.

As the relationship progresses, predators gradually escalate their demands, often starting with requests for the victim to view certain websites or share personal information, and can lead to demands for sexual content or self-harm. They exploit vulnerabilities like existing self-harming behaviors to further their control.

Posing As Friends or Partners Online

Predators use endearing language and attention to make victims feel unique and important. This can happen on various platforms, such as Ryan Montgomery’s experience on Roblox, which is frequented by children.

Exploiting Mental Health Struggles to Gain Trust

Predators take advantage of those who are bullied or self-harming by offering a false sense of trust and community before abusing these relationships for their own malevolent purposes.

Gradually Escalating Demands for Sexual Content and Self-Harm

What begins as seemingly innocent engagement can turn into overt manipulation, with predators demanding sexual content or self-harm from their victims.

Extortion and Coercion Tactics

Once predators obtain compromising material, they use it to extort their victims, threatening to disrupt the victims' lives by exposing their secrets to family, friends, and schools through tactics like the "lure book."

Threatening to Expose Victims' Private Information To Family, Friends, and Schools

Eve, one of the victims, faced threats of exposure which would result in personal photographs and information being divulged to her close contacts and authorities.

Coercing Victims Into Animal Abuse to "Prove" Loyalty

The predators resort to extreme demands, including coercing victims into animal abuse or even murder to demonstrate allegiance to the predator's group or cause.

Leveraging Violence and Retaliation to Control Victims

Violent loyalty tests, including - "bricking" or shooting at a victim’s house - are used to instill fear and maintain control. Ad ...

Ryan Montgomery and Shawn Ryan address the inadequacies in response by law enforcement and online platforms in combating online predatory cults, highlighting the complexity of the issue and the dire need for increased awareness and action.

Law Enforcement's Limited Response

Montgomery and Ryan express their concerns regarding the lacking response from law enforcement when it comes to addressing the activities of predatory cults.

FBI Has 250 Active Investigations Into 764 Group Activities

Despite the FBI having 250 active investigations into 764 group activities, there appears to be insufficient coordination and resources allocated to combat these widespread issues effectively.

Lenient Sentencing: Some Receive Only 14 Years In Prison

They discuss cases of surprisingly lenient sentencing like a 17-year-old member of a predatory cult who, despite committing murder, received only 14 years in prison. This suggests a potentially troubling gap between the severity of the crimes and the judicial penalties imposed.

Insufficient Coordination & Resources Against Online Predatory Cults

Various government agencies like the FBI, HSI, and Secret Service are characterized as having only "a little piece in this fight", indicating a fragmented approach rather than the unified and robust effort needed. Less than ten people in the entire country are focused on halting the expansion of such predatory behavior online, which is alarmingly inadequate given the scale of the problem.

Online Platforms' Lack of Action

The section outlines the failure of online platforms like Roblox to take meaningful action against predatory practices within their domains.

Roblox Discourages and Bans "Vigilantes" Exposing Predators

Roblox has taken steps to ban users, such as a YouTuber named Schlepp, who was exposing predators on the platform. In the wake of public scrutiny after issuing a cease and desist to these vigilantes, Roblox faced a significant loss in market value, highlighting the controversy surrounding their policies on user-led protective efforts.

Roblox Profits From In-game Purchases Tied To the 764 Group and Cults

Montgomery criticizes Roblox for its profit model, which includes a 30% commission on in-game purchases that may feed into activities associated with predatory groups. This suggests that Roblox may be inadvertently supporting unsavory content through its profit structures.

Insufficient Moderation and Safeguards For Children Online

The hosts also hint at the inadequate moderation of content related to child crimes on Roblox despite the platform being one of the largest directed at children. The use of platforms like Discord by the 764 group further indicates a larger issue of ineffective safeguards within online environments catering to young users.

Need For Increased Awareness and Action

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