Meta removed 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria

2024-07-25 13:23:08

Remote fraud professionals Push foreign Internet users to provide them with nude photos and videos of themselves, before buying them back by threatening to make them public.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, deleted about 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria that tried to share intimate photos, a few days after the fine imposed by the authorities of this African country. “We removed 63,000 Instagram accounts that directly engaged in sextortion efforts”a scam that involves extorting money from a victim, sometimes a child, by threatening to share their intimate photos on the internet, anonymously “sextortion” in English, as we press release from the American giant. Among the deleted accounts, 2,500 were linked to a group of 20 people.

in the name “Yahoo Boys”These far-fetched fraudsters trick foreign Internet users into providing their nude photos and videos, before blackmailing them for not sending money. “They primarily target older men in the United States and use fake accounts to hide their identities”Meta said in a press release.

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Scams responsible for suicides

The American company also withdrew “1,300 Facebook accounts, 200 Facebook pages and 5,700 Facebook groups, also based in Nigeria and which provide advice on committing fraud”, according to Wednesday’s press release. The social media giant said that most of these sextortion attempts have failed in recent years, but confirmed that they have also targeted young people. Last Friday, Nigeria fined Meta $220 million (around €203 million) for multiple, repeated data breaches.

From October 2021 to March 2023 alone, the US Homeland Security investigation received 13,000 reports about financial abuse involving 12,600 minor victims, mainly boys living in the United States. These scams are responsible for at least 20 suicides, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their investigators. “Usually outside the United States, mainly in West African countries such as Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, or in Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines”according to the American federal agency.

To combat the increase in cybercrime, Meta announced in April that it was testing a “protection against nakedness” powered by artificial intelligence on Instagram to protect young people.

Two men were also arrested in April in Nigeria for trying to recruit an Australian teenager by threatening to release her intimate photos if she did not pay 500 Australian dollars (300 euros). Australian police said the boy killed himself after the threats.