Meta freezes nearly 63,000 accounts used by Nigerian sextortion scammers
Meta has announced that it has frozen approximately 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria that were engaged in sextortion, amid a sharp increase in 'sextortion,' a practice in which people obtain sexually explicit photos of their targets by some means and then threaten to send them to family and friends in order to demand money.
Combating Financial Sextortion Scams From Nigeria | Meta
Meta Removes 63,000 Accounts in Nigeria Linked to Sextortion Scammers - Bloomberg
Meta carried out the mass freeze at the end of May 2024, freezing approximately 63,000 Instagram accounts that were directly involved in sextortion in Nigeria, as well as removing 1,300 Facebook accounts, 200 Facebook pages, and 5,700 Facebook groups that were also based in Nigeria and were providing tips on how to commit scams.
Meta also discovered a smaller fraud network of about 2,500 accounts, and was able to manually remove a small number of them, excluding the accounts that had been disabled by Meta's systems.
The scammers were selling scripts and guides to carry out their scams, and sharing photo albums to use when creating fake accounts. The targets were mostly adult American men, but some were also attempting to target minors, so Meta revealed that it had reported the accounts to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The recent surge in sextortion cases is due to the rise of criminal gangs that commit fraud in groups. One large group based in West Africa, known as the 'Yahoo Boys,' has been identified and is known to be trying to involve ordinary people in expanding its criminal ring.
'Sextortion,' a crime that uses sexual images to blackmail people on TikTok and Instagram, is being carried out mainly by the West African criminal group 'Yahoo Boys' - GIGAZINE
According to Meta, most of the frozen accounts were associated with the Yahoo Boys.
Meta said, 'These investigations and disruption efforts are very important, but they are only part of our approach. We will continue to assist law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting crimes in accordance with our Terms of Use and the law, by responding to valid legal requests for information and by issuing warnings to those in imminent danger. To disrupt criminals as much as possible, we display notifications to those under 16 (under 18 in certain countries) reminding them to tighten their messaging settings and not receive messages from people they are not related to. We will continue to work with experts, law enforcement and the technology industry to stay one step ahead of criminals and help disrupt criminals on all the platforms they use.'
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