- The company also removed Facebook groups where people were sharing tips on how to conduct sextortion schemes
Meta announced Wednesday that it removed around 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria that directly engaged in sextortion schemes and thousands of Facebook groups where people shared tips on how to exploit others online.
The company said the accounts were organized in part by a group called the Yahoo Boys, which it described as “loosely organized cybercriminals operating largely out of Nigeria that specialize in different types of scams.”
The news follows a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation that found more than two dozen minors have died by suicide after being targeted by sextortion scams online.
Two men from Nigeria were extradited to the U.S. and pleaded guilty in April to wrongful death charges after they sextorted 17-year-old Jordan DeMay, who then died by suicide.
Meta said it found a “coordinated network” of 2,500 accounts linked to sextortion. The majority of the accounts unsuccessfully targeted adults, but the company said it did find accounts that targeted minors.
The company also removed 1,300 Facebook accounts, 200 Facebook Pages and 5,700 Facebook Groups, all based in Nigeria, “that were providing tips for conducting scams.”
“Their efforts included offering to sell scripts and guides to use when scamming people, and sharing links to collections of photos to use when populating fake accounts,” Meta said.
The company said it is also ramping up safety features to help people avoid being scammed, including encouraging people sharing sensitive and nude photos in Instagram DMs to be cautious.
Meta called financial sextortion a “borderless” and “horrific” crime and worked with experts to “recognize the tactics scammers use, understand how they evolve and develop effective ways to help stop them.”
The U.S. launched a nationwide Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in 2022. Those in crisis can call or text 988, or reach the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.
@Quartz