Instagram removed 63,000 accounts tied to financial sextortion schemes

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Instagram investigated and removed around 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria that were trying to financially sextort users, according to a blog post from Meta.

The accounts, which were removed at the end of May, primarily targeted American men, Meta said, and were mostly unsuccessful. Among the 63,000 accounts was a network of 2,500 accounts that Meta linked to 20 individuals.

“Today we are announcing the strategic network disruption of two sets of accounts in Nigeria that were affiliated with Yahoo Boys and were attempting to engage in financial sextortion scams,” Meta said in a news release.

The Yahoo Boys are a loosely organized group of cybercriminals based in West Africa and are banned under Meta’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy. NBC News reported about the Yahoo Boys’ rise in January. The Yahoo Boys have been referred to in popular songs in West Africa and used as an example by some of how to get rich quickly.

According to a June report by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and an anti-child sexual abuse company, which focused on the targeting of teen boys, victims are often led to believe that they are talking to someone similar in age. In reality, it’s a fake account.

In a financial sextortion scam, the scammers ask victims to send explicit images of themselves and then demand payment or they’ll release the images to the victim’s friends and family.

While Meta said that most of the scamming attempts were unsuccessful and that mostly adults were targeted, some lawmakers think the company’s efforts are not enough. The U.S. Senate is pushing forward the Kid’s Online Safety Act and Children’s and the Teens Online Privacy Protection Act this week.

Meta said that its investigation also resulted in the removal of 1,300 Facebook accounts, 200 Facebook pages and 5,700 Facebook groups that all provided tips on how to conduct scams.

In addition to the current measures in place, Meta said it is testing new tools to combat sextortion, including an on-device nudity protection feature available in Instagram’s DMs, which will alert users of the potential risks when they send an explicit image.

“This is an adversarial space where criminals evolve to evade our ever-improving defenses,” Meta concluded in the post. “We will continue to focus on understanding how they operate so we can stay one step ahead, and will continue our vital cooperation with child safety experts, law enforcement and the tech industry to help disrupt these criminals across all the platforms they use.”

FBI warns of explosion of “sextortion” schemes targeting kids and teens