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Facebook removes 63,000 accounts in Nigeria over 'sextortion' scams

These scams were conducted by Nigerian online fraudsters, known as "Yahoo boys"- who are popular in the region for conducting a variety of scams, including impersonating people in financial distress or posing as Nigerian princes offering extraordinary investment returns.

Edited By: Saumya Nigam @snigam04 New Delhi Published on: July 24, 2024 18:30 IST
facebook nigeria, facebook sextortion, tech news, online scam,
Image Source : FILE Facebook removes 63,000 accounts in Nigeria over 'sextortion' scams

Meta had reportedly removed about 63,000 Facebook accounts from Nigeria that attempted to engage in financial sexual extortion scams which majorly 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.

In an official statement, Meta shared that it removed accounts which further included a smaller coordinated network of around 2,500 that were linked to a group of around 20 individuals.

"They targeted primarily adult men in the U.S. and used fake accounts to mask their identities," Meta said.

In sexual extortion, or "sextortion", people are threatened with the release of compromising photos, either real or fake, if they do not pay to stop them.

The investigation showed that the majority of the scammers' attempts were unsuccessful and although mostly targeting adults, there were also attempts against minors, which Meta reported to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the U.S.

The company said it had used a combination of new technical signals developed to help identify sex extortion.

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 further said that some accounts were providing tips for conducting scams as well.

"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.

ALSO READ: Telegram fixes critical vulnerabilities, protecting users from malicious files: Know-more

It was ESET's team which reportedly identified and analyzed the EvilVideo exploit on the platform, before reporting it to Telegram on June 26 (2024). To it's response, the platform released an update on July 11 (2024), patching the vulnerability in Telegram versions 10.14.5 and above. 

ALSO READ: Meta AI now available in Hindi: How to use?

Inputs from Reuters

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