Meta removes thousands of Facebook accounts that spread sextortion scams in Nigeria
Meta claims to have removed approximately 63,000 accounts involved in sextortion-type financial scams, as well as Facebook groups and pages that attempted to organize, recruit and train new scammers.
Meta claims to have removed approximately 63,000 Facebook accounts in Nigeria that were engaging in sextortion-type financial scams, as well as groups and pages that were attempting to organize, recruit and train new scammers.
Sexual extortion, or sextortion, involves persuading someone to send explicit photos online and then threatening to make the images public unless the victim pays money or performs sexual favors. Recent high-profile cases include: two nigerian brothers who pleaded guilty to sexually extorting teenage boys and young men in Michigan, including one who committed suicide, and a Virginia sheriff’s deputy who sexually extorted and kidnapped a 15 year old girl.
There has been a marked increase in sextortion cases in recent years, fueled in part by a loosely organized group called the Yahoo Boys, operating primarily out of Nigeria, Meta said, adding that he had removed Facebook accounts and groups run by the group under its policy on “dangerous organizations and individuals.”
In January, the FBI warned of a ‘Sharp increase’ in sextortion These are cases targeting children. The targeted victims are primarily boys between the ages of 14 and 17, but the FBI said any child can become a victim.
Meta said her investigation found that the majority of the scammers’ attempts were unsuccessful and primarily targeted adult men in the United States, but added that she had seen “a few” trying to target minorswhich Meta said he reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The deleted accounts included a “coordinated network” of about 2,500 accounts linked to a group of about 20 people who operated them, Meta said.
In April, Meta announced the rollout new tools on Instagram to protect young people and combat sexual extortion, including a feature that will automatically blur nudity in direct messages. Meta is still testing these features as part of its campaign to combat sex scams and other forms of “image abuse,” and to make it harder for criminals to contact teens.
