Meta removes 63,000 Instagram accounts associated with extortion schemes
Meta has removed a large number of Instagram accounts from Nigeria in an effort to combat sextortion scams. The accounts mainly focused on adult men in the US, but some also targeted minors, according to Meta.
The removals are part of Meta’s larger effort to crack down on sextortion on its platform in recent months. Earlier this year, the company added a security feature to Instagram posts that automatically detects nudity and alerts users to potential extortion scams. The company also provides in-app resources and safety tips about such scams.
According to Meta, the recent takedowns included 2,500 accounts linked to a group of about 20 people who worked together to run sex-extortion scams. The company also shut down thousands of Facebook accounts and groups that offered tips and other advice, including scripts and fake photos, to would-be sex extortionists. Those accounts were linked to the Yahoo Boys, “a group of loosely organized cybercriminals operating largely out of Nigeria that specializes in various scams,” Meta said.
Meta has come under particular scrutiny for not doing enough to protect teenagers from sexting on its apps. In a Senate hearing earlier this year, Senator Lindsey Graham pressed Mark Zuckerberg on whether the parents of a child victim of such a scam should sue the company.
While the company said most of the scammers it uncovered in its latest takedowns targeted adults, it confirmed that some accounts had also targeted minors and that those accounts had also been reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. (NCMEC).
