Meta removes 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria over ‘sextortion’ scams

Meta Platforms (META.O), opening a new tab said on Wednesday it had removed about 63,000 accounts in Nigeria that attempted to engage in financial sexual extortion scams mostly aimed at adult men in the United States.

Nigerian online fraudsters, known as “Yahoo boys,” are notorious for scams that range from passing themselves off as people in financial need or Nigerian princes offering an outstanding return on an investment.

Meta said in a statement the 63,000 accounts were on Instagram, adding that it had also removed 7,200 Facebook accounts, pages and groups dedicated to providing tips on scamming people.

The company also took down a smaller coordinated network of around 2,500 that were linked to a group of around 20 individuals.

In sexual extortion, or “sextortion”, people are threatened with the release of compromising photos, either real or fake, if they do not pay to stop them.

The majority of the scammers’ attempts were unsuccessful and although mostly targeting adults, there were also attempts against minors, which Meta reported to the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Meta representatives said this was not the first time they had disrupted such networks, but added they were disclosing the current operation to “drive awareness.”

The social media giant has been on the defense in recent years as governments, including legislators in the United States where Meta is based, ramp up pressure on it to address concerns that its executives have ignored evidence that its services harm children.

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