Meta Deletes 63,000 Nigerian Instagram Accounts After $220M Fine
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced it has deleted 63,000 Instagram accounts linked to sextortion scams from Nigeria.
The crackdown on scam accounts follows a $220 million fine imposed by Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for repeated data violations on Facebook and WhatsApp.
Meta is collaborating with law enforcement on the investigation and prosecution of these crimes.
The deleted accounts included a network of 2,500 profiles connected to a group of 20 individuals. Additionally, approximately 1,300 Facebook accounts, 200 Facebook Pages, and 5,700 Facebook Groups from Nigeria were removed for providing tips on conducting scams.
Sextortion gangs operate by posing as members of the opposite sex, convincing victims to share explicit images, and then threatening to release these images unless the victim pays money.
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Meta stated that these scams primarily targeted adult men in the U.S. using fake accounts to hide their identities, and also involved “Yahoo Boys,” a term for internet fraudsters.
While most of the scams were unsuccessful and focused on adults, minors were also targeted.
From October 2021 to March 2023, Homeland Security Investigations received 13,000 reports of financial sextortion involving 12,600 minors in the U.S., with the scams leading to at least 20 suicides, according to the FBI. The FBI noted that offenders are often located outside the U.S., primarily in West African countries like Nigeria and Ivory Coast, or Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines.
To address the growing issue, Meta announced in April that it is testing an AI-powered “nudity protection” feature in Instagram direct messages to safeguard teenagers.
