Understanding the Relationship Between 764 And The Com Network

Marc-André Argentino, Peter Smith

28 Nov 2025 • 19 min read

Over the past few months there have been several key arrests of threat actors from the Com Network, as well as increased media attention and awareness material about the network, its harms and groups. One of the common misconceptions (in the media and court records) is based around differentiating the difference between the Com Network and 764. In some reports and court documents the terms are used interchangeably to describe a large, decentralized network of mostly young online threat actors that engage in a wide variety of criminal behaviour. While this is true to a degree, there are varying degrees of accuracy depending on how each term is used.

Court records have called 764 the "764 network" or "764 enterprise", which can be confusing for those unfamiliar with the topic at hand. Additionally, 764 is regularly used as an umbrella term for all Com groups. This is something I have seen regularly in court records, which again is incorrect. From both an investigative and public awareness perspective it is important to understand the difference between groups, as each group has its own set of threat vectors, tactics and techniques, requirements and leaders. The harms perpetrated by each group also vary.

As two good Canadian boys doing their best to clarify the distinction between network, threats and groups, we turn to what we know: HOCKEY! The National Hockey League (NHL) can be used as an analogy for understanding the structural complexities of the Com Network.

The Com Network is like the NHL, in that it is the overarching organizational structure, and the ecosystem within which groups play in. The different types of criminal behaviors and threats that are present in the Com Network are the NHL divisions. Where the NHL has the Atlantic, Metropolitan, Central, and Pacific divisions, the Com Network can be broken down into: 1) Cyber Com, 2) (S)extortion Com, 3) Offline Com.

The groups in the Com Network are the teams. In the Com Network, the most popular and infamous group is 764. 764 are the Montreal Canadiens of the Com Network (and this breaks my heart to say as a Habs fan.) In the NHL the Canadiens have the most Stanley Cup championships and have one of the richest histories as an Original Six team. However, in as much as we cannot use the NHL and the Montreal Canadiens interchangeably, 764 ≠ The Com Network. The Com Network also has its own version of the NHL's Original Six teams that formed the league. These groups are referred to colloquially in Com as "oldgen" or "OG" and refer to groups and users that were active prior to 2021.

764 is one of the OG Extortion Com groups and thus has a long history in the network. It is also the group that has the most members who have been arrested. Like any sports league, there are several other “teams” that are part of the Com Network. Some have been around since the start. Examples of the oldgen groups are: CVLT, CLSTS, Kill All Sluts Kill All Retards (KASKAR), SBG, Anarchy, Nihilism, H3LL, Zone, Hive, Harsh Reality, XFH. Like the NHL, over the years the Com Network has expanded to include more groups such as M47, Harm Nation, Maniac Murder Cult, and No Lives Matter. Groups that appeared between 2022 and 2023 are called midgen.

Like the NHL (or any sports league), the Com Network has its own set of star players. These individuals become “star players” in Com by distinguishing themselves through causing exceptional harm and infamy. You can find their successes carved in the flesh of their victims, written on the tombstones of those they coerced into suicide, and in their victims’ traumas.

This includes people such as Rohan Sandeep Rane founder of CVLT, Bradley Cadenhead founder of 764, as well as 764's alleged leaders after his arrest Prasan Nepal and Leonidas Varagiannis. Others infamous members include Angel Almeida, Kaleb Christopher Merritt, Baron Cain Martin, Kalana Limkin, Riley, and Nino Luciano. Unidentified individuals who have obtained a significant level of notoriety use screen names like JD, Aizen, Courtboxx, Moistnigerian, NSK, Gustav, Makayla, Arukk, Stepan, T3nmm, Darksy, Whoops, Sakuran, Zuu, Grume, Chax, S1n, and Weepin.

Like the NHL, the Com Network is still regularly expanding and adding new groups. New groups that have emerged since 2024 and 2025 are called "newgen," who have their own rising stars like Dawn, Bleach, Leo, and Sleaze.

Now, there are complexities this analogy cannot cover. Members in the Com Network can be in several groups at the same time; some members also "own" or operate several different groups simultaneously. Further, a single group can be responsible for several different types of criminal activities.

Distinguishing Aspects of The Com

The Com, short for The Community, is best understood as a loose but highly networked collection of servers, chats, forums, and accounts spread across multiple mainstream and encrypted platforms. It is not a single community but an overlapping set of digital spaces called the Edgesphere that share members, methods, and a common culture of anti-social behaviour. These groups collaborate, compete, and cross-pollinate in ways that routinely drift into criminality and violent extremism.

The earliest form of the Com was a cluster servers, accounts and communication channels trading techniques for cybercrime: financial fraud, SIM swapping, illegal intrusions, and other forms of digital manipulation. Money mattered, but so did reputation. Participants documented and bragged about their crimes to gain status, and rivalries between groups escalated beyond the screen. Doxing and swatting became routine; in some cases, members hired others to carry out real-world attacks. This produced stable networks of violence-as-a-service, where everything from a brick through a window to targeted arson could be outsourced.

This branch of the ecosystem is what many now call “cyber com” or “hacker com” expanded rapidly during the pandemic. As it grew, it absorbed or intertwined with other fringe communities. Gore-sharing groups, exploitation networks, and clusters dedicated to coercing minors into self-harm or producing child sexual abuse material were folded into the broader Com environment. What emerged was not a single group but a hybridized ecosystem spanning cybercrime, sexual sadism, exploitation and terrorism/violent extremism.

The primary target pool within this expanded ecosystem is vulnerable youth between eight and 17 years old. Victims are coerced into recording or livestreaming self-harm, violent crimes, or sexual exploitation. These recordings are circulated within public and private chats or group servers. Extorted and coerced "content" is then archived in “lorebooks,” which function as digital repositories used to, blackmail, re-traumatize victims and accumulate clout. Members maintain control through threats of violence, doxing, swatting, animal mutilation, extortion, and coerced suicide. Victims are even traded between members as punishment.

Most activity occurs primarily on mainstream platforms. Perpetrators construct false identities, relationships, or e-romances to build trust and dependency, often reinforced by gifts such as Amazon deliveries, e-transfers, game currency, or cryptocurrency. Once a connection is established, victims are moved into private Telegram or Discord servers, where the coercion escalates and becomes insulated from outside view. The harms of the Com Network are primarily online harms. The threats that evolve out of these harmful digital milieus are direct consequences of unchecked and unmitigated online harms left to fester.

Some Com Groups the public should be aware of

A) Persistent Groups

764

764 is the most infamous extortion group to emerge from the Com Network’s ecosystem. The group was created in 2020 by a 15-year-old from Texas, Bradley Cadenhead (“Brad764”), who named it after his ZIP code. Before founding 764, Bradley had been involved in CVLT (“cult”), an early Com-linked group tied to child exploitation, cybercrime, and coercive behaviours that helped set the conditions for the later threat environment. Court records now add another piece to this trajectory: according to his defense lawyer, prior to being involved in CVLT, Bradley was also part of Greggy Cult, a group that received attention for blackmailing victims into self-harm.

This detail is important because it marks the point at which 764 shifted from what Bradley described as a group with “rules” to one that escalated rapidly into sadism and coercion. Early on, 764 had an internal rule against sharing animal or child abuse content. Torture material, if posted, was limited to adults. According to the court record, this changed when Bradley began interacting with members of Greggy Cult. He admitted that he started “extorting” individuals in that group and, at the same time, began “promoting” child sexual abuse material. Seeking more attention and clout, he said he tried to emulate Greggy Cult’s tactics, which had already drawn media coverage for forcing people to harm themselves on camera.

764 operates within the Com Network, whose members aim to normalize and weaponize a range of harms, including animal torture, zoosadism, incest, self-harm, sexual exploitation, sextortion, and violence used as coercion. Over the years, the threats posed by members of 764 evolved to include real-world violent extremism and murder. Leaders and members draw from the broader ecosystem to find people willing to act on their behalf.

764’s visibility stems from the high-profile arrests of its transnational members and leaders, combined with the severity of the animal and child sexual abuse it circulated. In the competitive hierarchy of the Com Network, where reputation functions as a form of currency, 764 became the central reference point and, in many ways, the singularity around which the broader NVE threat space organized. This visibility has produced hundreds of imitators and adjacent subgroups that adopt the same occult and darker aesthetics to signal affiliation within this part of the network.

Further Reading on 764

Criminal Case examples

Resources
Violent online groups exploiting children and youth

Maniacs Murder Cult (MKY, MMC, MKU)

The Maniac Murder Cult (MKY), also known as MKU or MMC, is an international violent-extremist network founded in 2017 by Ukrainian national Yegor Krasnov (known online as “Egor Maniac” or “Egor Yakovlev”). MKY emerged as a decentralized formation blending ethno-supremacist ideology with violent nihilism and militant accelerationism. Its earliest influences drew heavily from neo-Nazi skinhead culture and the “Maniac” subculture found in Russia and Ukraine, where groups carried out public assaults, stabbings, and random acts of violence for notoriety.

MKY’s initial structure resembled a loose constellation of semi-autonomous cells. Recruitment centered around young men attracted to the aesthetics of ultra-violence, spectacle, and status competition. Members produced propaganda celebrating torture, violence, and serial-killer fetishism, and encouraged followers to model themselves after those personas. The group positioned violence as both performance and identity formation, framing attacks as demonstrations of strength, devotion, or belonging.

Following Krasnov’s arrest in 2020, MKY’s cultural and operational identity evolved under the leadership of Georgian national Michail Chkhikvishvili, known online as “Commander Butcher.” Under his direction, MKY shifted from a mainly regional extremist formation to a broader transnational network with members and sympathisers across Europe and North America. The group’s messaging emphasized accelerationist chaos, racialized violence, and the glamorization of indiscriminate harm. During this period, MKY became implicated in IMVE-linked incidents in Canada, Sweden, Romania, the United States, Ukraine, and Russia.

On 16 July 2024, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York returned a four-count indictment charging Chkhikvishvili with conspiracy to solicit hate crimes and acts of mass violence on New Year’s Eve 2023. He was arrested in Moldova following an Interpol diffusion issued on the U.S. complaint. According to court records, Chkhikvishvili devised a plan to carry out mass murder in New York City by posing as Santa Claus and distributing candy laced with poison to racial minorities and others. He allegedly sent The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook to an undercover FBI agent who had infiltrated MKY and advised that ricin would be the simplest toxin to manufacture. The stated purpose of the planned attack was to advance MKY’s aims through mass casualties and public spectacle.

In 2025, the United Kingdom added Maniacs Murder Cult to its list of designated terrorist organizations. According to the British Home Office, MKY "aims to encourage individuals to engage in acts of violence against those it perceives as “anti-social”, to further its causes." The same statement categorized MKY's propaganda as a tool to increase the "capability or motivation to conduct a terrorist attack posing a threat to the UK.*"The UK designation makes it illegal to voice support or possess MKY materials.

MKY’s evolution mirrors broader patterns seen across the edgesphere: a hybridization of extremist aesthetics, serial-killer culture, violent nihilism, and accelerationist fantasy. The group functions as both an ideological formation and an online performance community in which acts of violence, planned or real, serve as currency. MKY’s presence within the NVE threat landscape demonstrates how fringe extremist subcultures can merge with digital harm networks, producing hybrid threats that bridge online identity formation and real-world violence.

Further Reading on MKY:

Michail Chkhikvishvili

No Lives Matter (NLM)

No Lives Matter (NLM) is a nihilistic violent-extremist group founded in 2021, that sits within the broader Com Network, a decentralized constellation of cybercrime, sextortion, and violence-oriented communities operating largely on Discord. NLM is driven by a misanthropic worldview that treats extreme violence, particularly murder, as both identity and purpose. In their guides and manifestos, the group defines itself through nihilism, framing humanity as “mundane” and positioning violence as the only meaningful act. Their stated aim is to “kill the mundane” and “sharpen our killing skills,” presenting themselves as a space for individuals seeking challenge through brutality.

NLM not only draws directly from “Maniac Culture,” which was popularized internationally by Maniac Murder Cult (MKY/MMC); but was also collaborating and in an alliance with MKY. The group’s publications borrow MKY’s structure, aesthetics, and instructional style. Most NLM material reads like a technical manual, with minimal ideological framing and a singular focus on how to kill efficiently. Several passages are verbatim reproductions of MKY handbooks. The translation of MKY guides into English in 2021 played a key role in bringing maniac culture into the English-speaking segments of the Com Network, with NLM functioning as its main Western offshoot. Within the Com ecosystem, NLM represents the fusion of maniac culture with occult themes and accelerationist goals.

NLM operates almost exclusively in anonymous online chatrooms on Telegram, Wire, Signal, SimpleX, Matrix and PotatoChat. As with other Com-linked groups, status is earned through performance: committing violence, coercing others into acts of violence. Though this group is more oriented towards terroristic and violent extremist activities, clout is the driver and currency. Both NLM and MKY describe the “manhunt” as a core practice: an organized search for a target (“a mundane”) whom members stalk, hunt, and kill while recording the process for future propaganda and proof of action. This construct reflects the broader NVE pattern in which violence is staged, documented, and circulated as both identity formation and competitive display within the subculture.

Further reading on No Lives Matter

Kaskar (Kill All Sluts, Kill All Retards)

Kaskar (Kill All Sluts Kill All Retards) was founded by an infamous member of the Com Network who goes by the name “Courtbox.” Courtbox also created a large public chat on Telegram and Discord known as Court, which acted as an avenue for victim and member recruitment. Courtbox was initially a member of 764, infighting between 764 leadership and its members led to a temporary disbandment of 764 in 2022, and the creation of several new Com Network groups by the members that left. Kaskar was one of those newly formed groups, as were 676, Harm Nation, Leak Society and H3ll. Notwithstanding the infighting, Kaskar, has been closely allied with 764 since its inception, with several members sharing affiliations between both groups up present day.

Kaskar built its identity around extreme psychological manipulation, sadistic self-harm, sadistic sextortion, and acts of cruelty designed to shock, dominate, and control victims. Like other Com groups members operate across public social media and gaming ecosystems, as well as encrypted communication applications; using these digital spaces to identify, groom, and exploit young people. Members often act collectively, planning their abuse together, which facilitates pressure on victims and increases the likelihood of escalation of harms.

Kaskar is known for making their victims do elaborate cutsigns and bloodsigns, and hosting cutshows on Discord. Victims are labelled, ranked, and sometimes “traded” between members and affiliated groups, where status is earned through increasingly cruel and sadistic behaviour. Members push victims toward more severe acts over time, using emotional manipulation, threats, and group pressure. In the broader Com Network, these tactics have repeatedly led vulnerable youth to attempt or complete suicide on livestream, which is treated by perpetrators as a form of entertainment and notoriety.

Animal abuse is also part of Kaskar’s culture. Victims may be pressured to harm or kill pets under threat of blackmail, while prospective members are encouraged to engage in animal cruelty to prove loyalty or gain status. Court records show links between individuals connected to these communities and real-world violence involving mutilated animals, child sexual abuse material, and other extreme content.

Kaskar repeatedly disbands and reappears under new leadership, a pattern common in nihilistic online extremist groups. This cycle shows how these communities persist despite arrests, platform bans, or the disappearance of central figures. Their decentralized nature and fluid alliances with groups like 764 and Harm Nation make them difficult to track, disrupt, or contain.

B) Newgen groups

1414

1414 is an extortion and IRL Com group dedicated to promoting self and harm and creating original content of graphic and violent materials. In August 2025, 1414 published what can be loosely called an instructional guide. In it, the author(s) state that it was founded in 2024 by Grume, Chax, Stalk. and Saw. In it the document informs the readers that victims can be found on "games like Roblox" or platforms like "X, Reddit, Instagram." The document informs prospective extorters to use use emotional, psychological manipulations, fake romances, threats, blackmail and publishing personal identifiable information to coerce victims.

The group asks members and prospective members to carry out a range of offline violence including vandalism, assaults, arson, stabbings, and animal abuse. Primarily 1414 encourages the extortion of victims into creating "bloodsigns" (a form of extorted content, where a victim is coerced to write individual screennames and group names on a wall in blood obtained through self-harm) or "cutsigns" (where individual screennames and group names cut into an individual's skin.)

1378

1378 is part of the Extortion Com network with a presence on Telegram and Discord. It specifically targets children and has at least one member connected to criminal violence.

The group uses Telegram to disseminate multiple promotional images and videos indicating their involvement in content creation featuring self-harm and the abuse of animals. To this end, the group would host "cutshows"

Owned by Dawn its members included Script, Guts, Cyko, and others who usually had membership in other groups. One of these individuals associated with 1378 was Luis Ricardo McLaughlin Jr, who went by "Sleaze" online. On August 19, 2025, McLaughlin stabbed a man three times behind a restaurant in in Newark, California. He live streamed the attack over a Discord video call.

Police said he confessed to the crime and was "motivated by a desire for notoriety.”

His charges on arrest include assault with a deadly weapon, premeditated attempted murder, and mayhem, according to Alameda County records.

Like many other Com groups, its members have used the same screen names as others in the network. This adds further levels of complication to investigation and monitoring efforts.

Further reading on Luis Ricardo McLaughlin Jr.

Newark man arrested after stabbing stranger, livestreaming alleged attack
Newark stabbing was ‘motivated by a desire for notoriety,’ police say

Purgatory

Purgatory is Cyber Com group dedicated solely to carrying out swatting campaigns on high profile targets. There have been two iterations of Purgatory, both with the same fixation on provoking armed law enforcement responses.

Three men, Evan Strauss, Owen Jarboe, and Brayden Grace, were arrested in May 2024 for their activities with the group. Using Telegram and Instagram, the US Attorney's Office in Maryland said in an indictment that the trio coordinated, planned, and announced their swatting activity. The defendants and their conspirators refined methods and tools to swatting including writing scripts and using online tools to obfuscate their phone numbers and identities. All three men pleaded guilty.

Purgatory's targets included threats to shoot and/or burn down a residential trailer park in Alabama, a teacher and unnamed students at a high school in Delaware, Albany International Airport in New York, and an Ohio casino. They also made "multiple homicide event and shooting threat against individuals in a residence in Eastman, Georgia."

An unsealed affidavit accused Strauss of coercing a minor to perform sexual acts over a video call that he recorded. He also is alleged to have threatened to show up at the child's house and kill them if they would not engage in self-harm at his direction. Police say Strauss admitted to convincing the victim to cut themselves.

A second Purgatory surfaced on Telegram in August 2025 run by a man claiming to be Canadian and using the screenname Gores. The first Telegram post to the Purgatory channel was a link to an article about the arrest of the three men, though it is not known if Gores was a member of the original Purgatory.

The group successfully swatted Villanova University in Pennsylvania, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Doane University in Nebraska, University of Colorado Boulder and Kansas State University, all in August 2025. Law enforcement responded to the calls of active shooters in force. The Villanova University swatting drew significant attention as footage of incidents showing students and families fleeing the scene during a busy orientation day. Recordings of Gores carrying out the swatting show him using gunshot sound effects during calls to 911. The calls were streamed live over Discord where Gores and others were observed using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone numbers to place the calls.

Further Reading on Purgatory

Terror circle

Terror Circle is a offline and extortion Com group primarily interested in its members carrying out violence and convincing others to commit self-harm. It is a newer Com group, likely created as recently as November 2025.

The group posted a video of a man being beaten and then stabbed by an unknown assailant. It cannot be verified at this time if the video is an original recording of a violent act committed by a Terror Circle member. It is common for Com groups to use already existing gore footage in its propaganda, however, a greater value is placed on original content.

The group has posted "blood signs," notes normally written on walls in blood, that include the name pseudonyms of some of its members. Victims are often instructed to stage these scenes while engaging in self-harm. Images of the signs are used as propaganda for the groups.

Key Terms Explained

Bricking: Refers to the act of throwing a brick or similar heavy object, most often through the window of someone’s home or car. Brickings offered as paid services in the Com network and are most often solicited to intimidate or psychologically manipulate someone.
Cutshows: is when a victim of a group or network will livestream themselves self-harming due to social engineering or extortion. Often during cutshows a victim will cut names and symbols into their own flesh.
Cutstage: In 2024, Discord introduced a new feature called “stages.” Stage channels are a special type of voice channel users can create in their server. These channels can be used for conversations and events where some people can talk and others can listen as the audience. 764 has used this tool to further dehumanize victims by being able to have a larger audience and demonstrate ownership of the victim
Doxing: refers to the public exposure of previously private information, for example home addresses and family member’s contact information.
Lorebooks: Tailored archives dedicated to acts individuals have carried out, convinced others to do in their names, or have been committed as a token of their dedication. They act as blackmail materials and can be used as social currency.
Swatting: refers to fabricating public safety threats to law enforcement for the purpose of instigating a police raid on an individual’s residence or workplace. Swatting can be intended to intimidate or traumatize individuals or cause physical harm to targets, their families, and their pets.

Resources for Parents and Youths