Meta has taken down 63,000 Instagram accounts linked to sextortion scams in Nigeria. This action follows a $220 million fine imposed on the company by Nigerian authorities.
The deleted accounts were part of a network involving 2,500 profiles managed by 20 individuals. In addition to Instagram, Meta removed 1,300 Facebook accounts, 200 Facebook Pages, and 5,700 Facebook Groups originating from Nigeria for providing scam tips.
Sextortion scams involve fraudsters pretending to be members of the opposite sex, convincing victims to share explicit images, and then blackmailing them for money.
These scams primarily targeted adult men in the US, but minors were also affected. Meta attributed these scams to "Yahoo Boys," a term for Nigerian internet fraudsters. From October 2021 to March 2023, a Homeland Security Investigation reported 13,000 financial sextortion cases involving 12,600 minors in the US, resulting in at least 20 suicides.
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The FBI stated that offenders in such scams are often based in West African countries like Nigeria and Ivory Coast or Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines. To combat the surge in these crimes, Meta introduced an AI-powered "nudity protection" feature on Instagram in April to safeguard teenagers.
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Additionally, two Nigerian men were arrested in April for attempting to extort an Australian teenager, who later committed suicide after being threatened.
Meta is collaborating with law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute these crimes. The crackdown on scam accounts came shortly after Nigeria's Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) fined Meta for repeated data protection and consumer rights violations on Facebook and WhatsApp. Meta continues to enhance its security measures to protect users from such malicious activities.
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