Meta has taken significant action against the Nigerian sextortion group known as "Yahoo Boys." The company removed 63,000 Instagram accounts and 7,200 Facebook assets, including 1,300 accounts, 200 Pages, and 5,700 Groups, all linked to these scammers. These actions are part of Meta's broader strategy to combat financial sextortion and improve scam detection.
Combating Financial Sextortion Scams From Nigeria
Financial Sextortion Overview:
- Financial sextortion is a global crime, increasingly driven by Yahoo Boys from Nigeria.
- These scammers have evolved from "Nigerian Prince" scams to romance scams, extorting victims with intimate images.
Meta's Actions:
- Instagram: Removed around 63,000 accounts, including a coordinated network of 2,500 accounts linked to 20 individuals targeting primarily adult men in the US.
- Facebook: Removed 7,200 assets, including 1,300 accounts, 200 Pages, and 5,700 Groups. These assets were used to organize, recruit, and train new scammers, and to share scamming scripts and fake photos.
Detection and Disruption
Technical and Investigative Efforts:
- Meta used new technical signals and in-depth investigations to identify and remove the coordinated network of accounts.
- The majority of these accounts were already detected and disabled by Meta's enforcement systems.
- Some accounts targeting minors were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Collaboration and Information Sharing:
- Meta shares relevant information with other tech companies through the Tech Coalition’s Lantern program.
- The company continues to strengthen its systems to automatically block attempts from these groups to return.
Support and Prevention
Law Enforcement and Training:
- Meta supports law enforcement by responding to legal requests and alerting them of imminent risks.
- The company funds and supports NCMEC and the International Justice Mission to run Project Boost, training law enforcement globally.
- Recent training sessions have been conducted in Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire.
User Protection Measures:
- Teens under 16 (under 18 in certain countries) are defaulted into stricter message settings.
- Safety Notices are shown to encourage caution.
- New signals have been developed to identify and prevent sextortion accounts from interacting with teens.
- Testing of an on-device nudity protection feature in Instagram DMs, which blurs detected nudity and directs users to safety tips and resources.
Meta acknowledges that this is an adversarial space where criminals constantly evolve their tactics. The company remains committed to understanding these operations to stay ahead and continues to collaborate with child safety experts, law enforcement, and the tech industry to disrupt these criminals across all platforms.
