Meta claims to have removed approximately 63,000 Facebook accounts in Nigeria that engaged in sextortion-style financial fraud, as well as groups and pages that attempted to organize, recruit and train new fraudsters.
Sexual extortion or sexual harassment involves persuading a person to post explicit photos online and threatening to make those photos public unless the victim pays or provides sexual services. Recent high-profile cases include two Nigerian brothers convicted of sexually abusing teenagers and young men, one of whom committed suicide in Michigan, and a Virginia sheriff’s deputy who sexually assaulted and kidnapped a 15-year-old girl.
Run by Yahoo Boys, an unorganized group based mainly out of Nigeria, which has seen a marked increase in sexual harassment in recent years, Meta added that it deletes Facebook accounts and groups run by the group as part of its policy. about “dangerous organizations and individuals”.
In January, the FBI warned of a “significant increase” in sexual assaults targeting children. Targeted victims are mostly boys between the ages of 14 and 17, but the FBI said any child could be a victim.
Meta said his research showed that most of the scammers’ attempts were unsuccessful and primarily targeted adult males in the US, but added that he had seen “some” attempts to target minors and reported Meta to the National Missing Persons Center. and Exploited Children.
The deleted accounts included a “coordinated network” of about 2,500 accounts linked to a group of about 20 people who controlled them, Meta said.
In April, Meta announced new tools on Instagram to protect young people and combat sexual harassment, including a feature that automatically hides 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 make it harder for criminals to contact teenagers.