Meta has reported the removal of approximately 63,000 Facebook accounts from Nigeria, linked to financial sextortion scams. These scams involve scammers pretending to be attractive women to deceive victims into sending nude photos. The scammers then threaten to make these images public unless a ransom is paid.
In Nigeria, the issue has been particularly acute. Cybercriminals have exploited the anonymity provided by online platforms to target vulnerable individuals, including minors, and use threats of exposure to demand money or more explicit content. The impact on victims can be devastating, leading to emotional distress, financial loss, and reputational damage.
The tech giant also removed around 7,200 resources, including 1,300 Facebook accounts, 200 Facebook Pages, and 5,700 Facebook Groups from Nigeria. It noted that in recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in scammers targeting people worldwide via the Internet. These scams are often carried out by cybercriminals known as Yahoo Boys—Nigerian online fraudsters—who engage in various scams, including financial sextortion.
“First, we removed around 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria that attempted to directly engage in financial sextortion scams. These included a smaller coordinated network of around 2,500 accounts that we were able to link to a group of around 20 individuals. They targeted primarily adult men in the US and used fake accounts to mask their identities,” the company said.
These pages and groups facilitated such scams by offering guidance, including scripted dialogues for engaging with victims and providing links to collections of images used by scammers to create fake identities for catfishing.
The company noted that their investigation revealed that most of these scammers’ attempts were unsuccessful and mainly targeted adults. However, they also found some attempts to target minors, and these accounts were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
They added that since these criminals don’t confine their activities to a single platform, they share relevant information with other tech companies through the Tech Coalition’s Lantern program, enabling them to take appropriate action as well.
Sextortion is rapidly becoming one of the most prevalent scams targeting teenagers worldwide and has been connected to over 27 suicides in the United States. A significant number of these scammers seem to be operating from Nigeria, putting pressure on local authorities to take stronger action.
It’s been two years since Jenn Buta’s son, Jordan, took his own life after scammers tricked him into sending explicit photos and then blackmailed him. Jordan was approached by sextortion scammers on Instagram who posed as an attractive girl his age.
They flirted with him and sent sexual photos to persuade him to share explicit images of himself. Once they had the photos, they blackmailed him for hundreds of pounds, threatening to post the pictures online to his friends if he didn’t pay. Jordan sent as much money as he could and warned the scammers that he would kill himself if they shared the images.
Two Nigerian brothers pleaded guilty to charges of child sexual exploitation. Another Nigerian man, connected to Jordan’s death and other similar cases, is currently contesting his extradition.
According to Meta, the accounts were identified through a combination of advanced technology and human review. The company employs AI tools to detect suspicious activity patterns and content that may violate its policies. This technology, alongside reports from users and other stakeholders, has been crucial in identifying and removing harmful accounts.
“We also recently announced that we’ve developed new signals to identify accounts that are potentially engaging in sextortion, and are taking steps to help prevent these accounts from finding and interacting with teens. Finally, we’ve started testing our on-device nudity protection feature in Instagram DMs, which will blur images detected as containing nudity, encourage people to be cautious when sending sensitive images and direct people to safety tips and resources, including NCMEC’s Take It Down platform, “said Meta.
Furthermore, Meta is collaborating with various organizations to provide support and resources to victims of sextortion. These partnerships aim to offer psychological, legal, and practical assistance to those affected by this crime.
Meta’s crackdown on sextortion is not limited to Nigeria. The company has been actively working to combat this issue on a global scale. In the past year, Meta has introduced several initiatives aimed at protecting users, including educational campaigns, partnerships with law enforcement, and the implementation of stricter community standards.