Meta announced on Wednesday that it has removed 63,000 Instagram accounts linked to sextortion scams originating from Nigeria. This action follows a $220 million fine imposed on the company by Nigerian authorities.

The deleted accounts included a network of 2,500 profiles traced to a group of 20 individuals. Additionally, 1,300 Facebook accounts, 200 Facebook Pages, and 5,700 Facebook Groups from Nigeria were removed for “providing tips for conducting scams.”

Sextortion scams involve fraudsters pretending to be members of the opposite sex to persuade individuals to share explicit images, which are then used to extort money by threatening public exposure. Meta stated that these scammers primarily targeted adult men in the US, using fake accounts to hide their identities. The company blamed “Yahoo Boys,” a local term for internet fraudsters, for these scam accounts.

Although most of the scams targeted adults, minors were also affected. Between October 2021 and March 2023, a Homeland Security Investigation received 13,000 reports of financial sextortion involving 12,600 minors, mainly boys, in the US. The FBI reported that these scams resulted in at least 20 suicides.

The FBI has noted that offenders engaged in financially motivated sextortion are often based outside the US, particularly in West African countries such as Nigeria and Ivory Coast, and Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines.

In response to the rising incidence of such crimes, Meta announced in April that it was testing an AI-powered “nudity protection” feature in Instagram direct messages to safeguard teenagers. In the same month, two men were arrested in Nigeria for attempting to extort an Australian teenager by threatening to release personal photos unless he paid 500 Australian dollars (£260). Tragically, the boy committed suicide following the threats.

Meta is collaborating with law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute these crimes. The crackdown on scam accounts came shortly after Nigerian authorities fined Meta for “multiple and repeated” data violations. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) accused Meta of violating data protection and consumer rights laws on Facebook and WhatsApp.