Meta cracks down on ‘Yahoo Boys’ and thousands of sextortion accounts

Meta shut down 63,000 Instagram accounts based successful Nigeria that it says were engaged successful financial sextortion scams and connected to what Meta calls a “loosely organized” group of cybercriminals known arsenic nan “Yahoo Boys.”

Meta has been getting superior astir cracking down connected sextortion scams and educating users astir really to debar them. Earlier this year, Meta said it would automatically nonstop suspected sextortion relationship messages to users’ hidden requests folder. If users were already talking to a imaginable scam aliases sextortion account, it would show a information announcement prompting them to study threats to stock backstage images. Meta said it would besides make it truthful that imaginable sextortion accounts wouldn’t beryllium capable to position nan “Message” fastener connected teens’ profiles, moreover if they’re already connected.

Meta said that nan caller method signals it’s created helped way down nan web of sextortion accounts. Of nan 63,000 accounts Meta said it removed, 2,500 were portion of a coordinated web linked to a group of 20 people. Meta said nan web mostly targeted big men successful nan US, and astir of their attempts were unsuccessful. After identifying nan web of 2,500 accounts, Meta said it was capable to find much accounts successful Nigeria engaged successful akin scams, starring to nan remainder of nan accounts it removed.

Meta besides removed thousands of Facebook accounts, groups, and pages based successful Nigeria that gave scammers tips, clone photos to usage connected accounts, and scripts. Its strategy is now identifying and blocking immoderate attempts by these groups to return to nan site.

The institution has been moving connected caller features to pass users astir imaginable scams. Meta said successful April it was testing a new characteristic that detected images pinch nudity arsenic good arsenic a punctual to show users to deliberation doubly earlier sending a nude image via nonstop message. It besides fto them unsend nan connection later on. The characteristic would besides show a informing to recipients who effort to guardant nan image.