Meta said on Wednesday that it had removed about 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria that were engaging in sexual extortion and that it had removed thousands of Facebook groups and pages that were attempting to organize, recruit and train new scammers.
Sexual extortion , or sextortion , involves persuading a person to send explicit photos online, then threatening to make those images public if the victim does not pay money or obtain sexual favors .
Recent high-profile cases include two Nigerian brothers who pleaded guilty to sexually extorting teenagers and young men in Michigan , one of whom committed suicide, and a Virginia sheriff's deputy who sexually extorted and kidnapped a 15-year-old gi
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Cases of sextortion have increased in recent years, particularly driven by a loosely structured group, the Yahoo Boys , which operates primarily from Nigeria , Meta reported. The company added that it had applied its policy regarding "dangerous organizations and individuals" to remove the Facebook accounts and groups managed by the company.
"Because they are motivated by money, they can target indiscriminately ," said Antigone Davis, global head of security at Meta. "In other words, it's a somewhat scattered approach: you have to send out many requests to individuals and see who can respond."
In January, the FBI warned of a "significant increase" in cases of sextortion targeting children. The victims are primarily boys aged 14 to 17, but the FBI clarified that any child can become a victim.
Meta said its investigation revealed that the majority of the scammers' attempts were unsuccessful and that they primarily targeted adult men in the United States, but added that "some" had attempted to target minors, which Meta reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The deleted accounts were part of a "coordinated network" of approximately 2,500 accounts linked to a group of about 20 people who managed them, according to Meta.
In April, Meta announced it was rolling out new tools on Instagram to protect young people and combat sexual extortion, including a feature that will automatically blur nudity in direct messages . Meta is still testing these features as part of its campaign to combat sex scams and other forms of "image abuse ," and to make it harder for criminals to contact teenagers.
According to Mr. Davis, users should be wary of messages from people whose photos are "highly stylized" , who are "exceptionally beautiful" , or who have never messaged you before.
"This should give you pause ," she said. Scammers often use this tactic to try to gain the trust of unsuspecting people and trick them into sending back a photo of themselves.
"This is one of the areas where, if you have the slightest suspicion, I urge you to be cautious ," she said.
