What You Will Learn
- How members of 764 allegedly earn vulnerable teens’ trust, collect personal details and intimate images, then use them for blackmail.
- The coercive acts members allegedly demand, including cutting, suicide attempts, humiliation and abuse.
- How 764 began in Texas, spread internationally and reaches children through phones, games and social media despite arrests.
A Predator Earns Her Trust
The teenage girl thought she had found a sympathetic friend online, someone who understood her anxiety, depression, and loneliness. For months, he cultivated the relationship and earned her trust.
Methodically, he collected personal details: where she lived and went to school, who her parents and friends were, and which social-media accounts she used. He persuaded her to share intimate photographs and secrets. Then he used them to blackmail her into harming herself and carving his online name into skin hidden beneath her clothing.
Within the violent online network 764, this is known as a “cut sign” – evidence, in the group’s warped status system, that a member can make another person bleed on command. Members call images and videos of such abuse “blood content.”
This is among the darkest and most sinister crime groups I have ever covered on the True Crime Reporter® Podcast.
Terror Born In Stephenville, Texas
The network began in Stephenville, Texas, about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth. In early 2021, 15-year-old Bradley Cadenhead created a Discord server called 764, named for the first three digits of the city’s ZIP code.
According to court records, Cadenhead had been placed on juvenile probation at 13 after threatening a school shooting. By his early teens, he spent extensive time in online communities devoted to graphic violence and gore. Through Minecraft and other online spaces, he connected with exploitation communities.
Cadenhead modeled 764 on CVLT – pronounced “cult” – whose perpetrators manipulated minors into producing sexually explicit material and used it for blackmail. Under 764, sexual coercion became intertwined with forced self-harm, animal abuse, humiliation, and suicide coercion, supported by an ideology glorifying violence.
764 Lives On After Arrest Of Its Founder
Cadenhead was arrested in 2021 and sentenced in May 2023 to 80 years in a Texas prison for possession with intent to promote child pornography. But 764 survived, splintered and spread internationally. According to the FBI, the network embraces an accelerationist ideology that seeks to intensify social disorder and hasten the collapse of institutions, including the U.S. government.
Federal investigators identified 20-year-old Prasan Nepal, known online as “Trippy,” as a founding member and alleged leader. Nepal was arrested in North Carolina on April 22, 2025. Six days later, Leonidas Varagiannis, known as “War,” was arrested in Greece. Prosecutors announced charges against both men on April 29, accusing them of operating an international child-exploitation enterprise.
Inside 764 Inferno
According to the criminal complaint, the men operated a subgroup called 764 Inferno through an encrypted messaging platform. Investigators allege Nepal posted instructions for finding vulnerable minors in online self-harm communities, befriending them and exploiting their distress.
Inferno members also allegedly circulated “Lorebooks” – digital collections of abuse used as propaganda and recruiting material. One video showed a minor being instructed during a live chat to pour bleach on her arm and set it on fire.
Investigators say the group also produced a guide teaching members to target isolated young people, collect personal information, and use it for blackmail. The complaint alleges at least eight minors were exploited.
FBI Investigations Continue
The investigations continue. In April 2026, the FBI announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Austin Jan Sy Yatco, a former Plano resident accused of coercing minors into producing child sexual abuse material for “Greggy’s Cult,” a group authorities say operated like 764.
FBI Dallas says it is investigating more than 450 people linked to such networks.
On July 8, 2026, 19-year-old Alexis Aldair Chavez, a San Antonio administrator of the related 8884 network, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison. Authorities say Chavez, known online as “Zack8884,” and other members coerced minors into attempted suicide, self-harm and animal abuse during recorded video calls.
Following Chavez’s sentencing, U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons warned parents to remain involved in their children’s online lives, ask difficult questions and not assume a child is “just playing games” or “just talking with friends.”
A Threat That Reaches Into Her Smartphone
The tactics are familiar: isolate a vulnerable young person, earn her trust, collect compromising material and use shame and fear to control her. What makes the exploitation especially insidious is its reach. A perpetrator can enter a child’s life from anywhere and remain present through the device in her hand.
For decades, parents taught children about “stranger danger.” Today, a stranger can reach a child at home through a phone, a game, or a social media account. For an adolescent who feels invisible, online attention can be intoxicating. Curiosity and open communication are more effective than shame or surveillance alone.
What Parents and Caregivers Can Do
Parents and caregivers should watch for withdrawal, unexplained injuries, secrecy around online contacts, and abrupt behavioral changes. If a child discloses exploitation, remain calm, preserve the evidence, and report the threat.
Call 911 if anyone is in immediate danger, or contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov. The most important message is simple: This is not your fault, and you are not alone.
Potential signs of victimization include:
Sudden behavior changes such as becoming withdrawn, moody, or irritable
Changes in appearance, including neglect of appearance or hiding specific body parts
Changes in eating or sleeping habits
Signs of animal cruelty
Unexplained harm to younger siblings
Threatening to commit suicide and openly talking about death, “not being wanted or needed,” or “not being around”
Scars, often in patterns, including 764-related terms or names from online platforms
Fresh cuts, scratches, bruises, bite marks, burns, or other wounds
Reports of personally identifying information being posted online for victimization (commonly referred to as a “dox”)
Unexpected texts or phone calls about the child from unknown numbers to the home
Sudden and unexplained gifts or packages arriving for the child at home
