Crime

Meta Removes 63,000 Instagram Accounts in Nigeria for ‘Sextortion’ Scams

Published by Tope Fakinlede on July 24th, 2024.

Meta Removes 63,000 Instagram Accounts in Nigeria for ‘Sextortion’ Scams

Meta announced on Wednesday that it had taken down approximately 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria due to their involvement in financial sexual extortion scams, primarily targeting adult men in the United States.

Nigerian online fraudsters, often referred to as “Yahoo boys,” are infamous for a variety of scams, including pretending to be individuals in financial distress or posing as Nigerian princes offering lucrative investment opportunities.

In its statement, Meta revealed that the removed accounts also included a smaller, coordinated network of around 2,500 accounts linked to a group of about 20 individuals. “They primarily targeted adult men in the U.S., using fake accounts to conceal their identities,” Meta said.

“Sextortion” involves threatening individuals with the release of compromising photos, whether real or fabricated, unless they pay to prevent the exposure. The investigation found that most of these scams were unsuccessful, though there were attempts targeting minors, which Meta reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the U.S. The company stated that it utilized a combination of new technical signals to help identify such extortion activities.

Nigeria’s scammers have long been known for “419 scams,” named after the section of the national penal code that inadequately addressed fraud.

As economic conditions worsen in Nigeria, a country of over 200 million people, online scams have increased, with perpetrators operating from university dormitories, shanty suburbs, or affluent neighborhoods.

Meta noted that some of the accounts provided tips for conducting scams. “These efforts included offering to sell scripts and guides for scamming people, as well as sharing links to collections of photos to use in fake accounts,” the company stated.