Facebook’s parent company, META, said on Wednesday it had removed thousands of Instagram accounts linked to so-called sextortion scams.
In a blog post, the company detailed how it removed 63,000 accounts, including a network of 2,500 accounts run by about 20 individuals who were plotting financial fraud.
According to Meta, the accounts belong to a group called Yahoo Boys, which is not associated with the website, and is a loose group of cybercriminals, mainly based in Nigeria, who specialize in financial fraud.
The scammers primarily targeted adult males in the United States, but Meta said they also tried to target minors, so it reported the case to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In a sextortion scam, perpetrators typically reach out to huge numbers of users through social networks in an attempt to elicit a response from the victim and set up a fake romantic relationship.
During the exchange, the scammers demand nude photos or videos of the victim, threatening to publish them to friends and family or online unless the victim pays a ransom that can amount to hundreds of dollars.
Meta says its automated systems detected the majority of the fraudulent accounts before any damage could be done, but it also used other investigative methods to find the remaining accounts and take them offline.
Facebook’s parent company Meta said it had removed thousands of accounts linked to sextortion scams. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File) (The Associated Press)
Meta’s global security head, Antigone Davis, said the company is releasing the information to raise awareness of these types of scams, and to let criminals know it is aware of them and is taking steps to actively stop them.
Sex blackmail has become a growing threat in recent years, with the FBI issuing warnings about the crime again this year and into 2023. In 2023, two Nigerian men suspected of perpetrating a sex blackmail scheme that led to the suicide of a 17-year-old in Michigan were extradited to the United States and charged.
A Nigerian court ordered a third man to be extradited to the United States in March 2024, but he is contesting the order. The original suspect pleaded guilty in April.
Meta said it had removed 63,000 Instagram accounts, as well as 7,200 assets from Facebook, including 1,300 Nigeria-based accounts, 200 pages and 5,700 groups dedicated to providing scam tips, as well as scripts and photos used to create fake accounts for victims.
Beyond account deletion, Meta says it also offers features to help users avoid falling victim to sextortion scams, including on-device nudity protection that automatically blurs images containing nudity in Instagram direct messages.
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There are a few ways that users can recognize the signs of a potential sextortion scammer. The most obvious is receiving messages from people you’ve never spoken to before who seem to be trying to contact you via direct message, without any prompting. Another sign is messages with pictures attached, from people who request pictures in response.
Meta says it also has technology that can determine if an account is exhibiting fraudulent or suspicious behavior, and will notify users interacting with the account that it may be a fraudulent account.
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Contact Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on X. Daniel Howley.
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