'Going to end up dead': Warning for teens using apps to commit crimes

Criminal syndicates have recruited young people online through gaming platforms like Roblox. (Getty Images)

Organised crime syndicates are using encrypted digital platforms to recruit vulnerable teenagers with intellectual disabilities, low IQ and no criminal history, "conning" them to commit serious crimes, according to a child and adolescent forensic psychiatrist.

Those crimes include fire-bombings, home invasions and kidnappings that have been occurring across Melbourne.

Dr Adam Deacon told 7.30 that criminals are preying on minors who might be isolated or struggling with neurodevelopmental challenges, convincing them to carry out high-risk crimes for money, via encrypted platforms.

"They're luring them into behaviour that they otherwise would not even have considered, if not for the attraction of money, some sort of level of notoriety and this sort of false sense of respect and regard.

Child and adolescent forensic psychiatrist Dr Adam Deacon says criminals are enlisting vulnerable teenagers online. (ABC News: Dan Fermer)

"I think at a level they [teenagers] know what they're doing, why they're doing it. [But] I don't think they really have a level of sophistication."

Dr Deacon, who meets with over a dozen youth offenders a week, said criminal syndicates are finding and enlisting teens online.

"The children seem to be recruited through social media and applications," he said.

"Encrypted apps [such as] Telegram and Discord and Signal and the like, but also through gaming, kids playing Fortnite and Roblox and the like. There's different means," he said.

He said many of the targeted teenagers had low IQs and learning disabilities, and may not consider the consequences of their actions.

The online game Fortnite has been used by criminal syndicates to target teenagers. (Supplied)

"Primarily it'll be in response to their need to again have that social connection, some sense of being, belonging somewhere, and including the financial gain which is obviously an incentive for them to participate," Dr Deacon said.

A perpetrator who paid the ultimate price was Joseph Romano.

He was 19 when he was shot and killed after he carried out a home invasion in 2024.

His father, Francis Romano, discovered his son's criminal activity too late and offered a warning to other parents.

Francis Romano's son Joseph was killed while he was carrying out a home invasion. (Supplied)

"Find out what your kids are up to. Don't let them do what my son was doing," he told 7.30.

Police say Joseph was armed and given instructions on Signal to break into a house in Donnybr