Meta removes 63,000 accounts of sex blackmail scammers from Instagram and Facebook

25 July 2024 2 minutes Author: Newsman

Meta reported removing more than 63,000 accounts of sex blackmail scammers from Instagram, along with another 2,500 from Facebook. The accounts belonged to groups from Nigeria and targeted men and children in the US.

Meta continues to actively fight against financial fraud carried out by the Nigerian cybercriminal group “Yahoo Boys”. The latest social media purge included the removal of 63,000 Instagram accounts and 7,200 Facebook accounts. The group was already banned under Meta’s “Dangerous Organizations and Individuals” policy, but the company decided to announce the removal to raise public awareness.

Sexual blackmail (sextortion) involves the use of social engineering to trick victims, mostly men, into sending intimate material to scammers and then receiving threats to publish it without ransom. Meta found that 1,300 accounts, 200 pages and 5,700 Facebook groups were involved in organizing, recruiting and training new fraudsters.

The Nigerian group Yahoo Boys is known for various phishing schemes, from impersonating Nigerian princes to money transfer scams. Meta reports any attempts to the US National Center for Child Targeting and Exploitation and shares the information through the Lantern Tech Coalition program to protect children from online threats because fraudsters can attack through different platforms. The company continues to study the tactics of fraudsters and cooperate with experts to effectively stop them.

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