Meta removes 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria over 'sextortion' scams
Adds background on regulatory pressure, paragraphs 7-10
LAGOS, July 24 (Reuters) -Meta Platforms META.O said on Wednesday it had removed about 63,000 accounts in Nigeria that attempted to engage in financial sexual extortion scams mostly aimed at adult men in the United States.
Nigerian online fraudsters, known as "Yahoo boys," are notorious for scams that range from passing themselves off as people in financial need or Nigerian princes offering an outstanding return on an investment.
Meta said in a statement the 63,000 accounts were on Instagram, adding that it had also removed 7,200 Facebook accounts, pages and groups dedicated to providing tips on scamming people.
The company also took down a smaller coordinated network of around 2,500 that were linked to a group of around 20 individuals.
In sexual extortion, or "sextortion", people are threatened with the release of compromising photos, either real or faked, if they do not pay to stop them.
The majority of the scammers' attempts were unsuccessful and although mostly targeting adults, there were also attempts against minors, which Meta reported to the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Meta representatives said this was not the first time they had disrupted such networks, but added they were disclosing the current operation to "drive awareness."
The social media giant has been on the defense in recent years as governments, including legislators in the United States where Meta is based, ramp up pressure on it to address concerns that its executives have ignored evidence that its services harm children.
In a hearing earlier this year, one U.S. lawmaker accused Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and other social media leaders of having "blood on their hands" for failing to protect children from escalating threats of sexual predation on their platforms.
The U.S. Surgeon General has also called for a warning label to be added to social media apps as a reminder of those harms.
Nigeria's scammers became known as "419 scams" after the section of the national penal code that dealt - ineffectively - with fraud.
As economic hardships worsen in the country of more than 200 million people, online scams have grown, with those behind them operating from university dormitories, shanty suburbs or affluent neighbourhoods.
Meta said some accounts were providing tips for conducting scams.
"Their efforts included offering to sell scripts and guides to use when scamming people, and sharing links to collections of photos to use when populating fake accounts," it said.
Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Additional reporting by Katie Paul; Editing by William Maclean
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
