Meta has taken action against sextortion scams by removing approximately 63,000 Instagram accounts and around 1,300 Facebook accounts, 200 Facebook Pages, and 5,700 Facebook Groups originating from Nigeria. These accounts were involved in targeting individuals, primarily U.S. men, with financial sextortion schemes. The cybercriminals behind these activities, known as Yahoo Boys, were found to be organizing, recruiting, and training new scammers. They offered scripts, guides, and shared links to photo collections for creating fake accounts.
The scams typically involved requesting photos from victims, followed by threats to share them. In response to these incidents, Meta introduced new tools in April to protect young users from explicit content and sextortion threats. While most of the scams targeted adults, some attempts were made to target minors, prompting Meta to report such accounts to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
