The woman in the grainy screenshots looks like every other overnight internet sensation: young, Filipina, caught mid-laughter. The captions, however, are far less innocent. 'Pinay gold medalist bold video,' scream the posts. 'Leaked boyfriend tape of Olympic champion.' Thousands click. Almost none of them get what they came for.
Instead, they walk straight into a trap.
Over the past week, Filipino social media has been overrun by two supposedly explosive scandals: a so‑called 'bold' sex video featuring a 'gold medalist' named Zyan Cabrera, and a leaked video call involving Siargao-based creator Vera Hill, better known online as 'ChiChi.' Different names, different backstories – but underneath the messy headlines, cybersecurity analysts say it's the same, carefully engineered scam.
And it tells us something deeply unflattering about the modern internet: our curiosity has become a commodity, and scammers know precisely how to price it.
TheZyan Cabrera hoaxis almost brutally simple in its cynicism.
Scammers spotted an irresistible opportunity in the 2026 Winter Olympics, a global event that reliably sends search traffic into overdrive. Into that noise they quietly planted a new name: 'Pinay gold medalist' Zyan Cabrera, sometimes tagged as Jerriel Cry4zee, presented as a Filipino Olympic champion at the centre of a nude video scandal.
lol...Panoorin🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭 jerriel cry4zee viral cryzeeeee...,,🇵🇭Binabanggit ang zyan cabrera a.k.a jerriel cy4zee,,👀👀Part 4 and 5 napanuod kona hehehe🥀... Gold medallist Philippines Ito bayon👀 👀,🤳🤳 ..tingnan ang video sa mga komento..🤘pic.twitter.com/hEdtgjJsKc
There is one problem. Zyan Cabrera is not an Olympian. She has never won a gold medal. The entire athletic backstory is fiction, spun for one purpose only: to hijack the Olympic news cycle and ride on its credibility.
This is 'news hijacking' in its purest form. By tagging her as a 'gold medalist' and pairing her name with phrases like 'bold video' and 'boyfriend leak,' scammers are able to trick Google,Facebookand TikTok's recommendation systems. People searching for authentic Olympic coverage are pushed towards grubby, misleading links that look like exclusive footage of an athlete's private life.
There is no sex tape. There is only the user's data, which suddenly becomes far more exposed than they intended.
Source: International Business Times UK
