Instagram removes 63,000 accounts used for sextortion

Meta, the owner of Instagram, announced the removal of thousands of accounts in Nigeria involved in sextortion schemes, BBC reported.

Such accounts typically target their victims with fake identities of young women to trick the victims into sending sexually explicit material, which the scammers use to extort money.

'Sextortion' is damaging psychologically as some victims have been reported to commit suicide due to the pressure from the scammers and societal stigma.

In its blog post on Wednesday, Meta said it had removed around 63,000 accounts that tried to engage in these scams. ”Financial sextortion is a heinous crime that often produces dire repercussions,” the company stressed.

Meta also deleted 5,700 Facebook groups where fraudsters shared information about how to defraud people. Sextortion has increasingly become a worry to authorities and experts who regularly urge social media users to guard themselves against it.

The worst case that is worth mentioning occurred in May when 16-year-old Murray Dowey from Dunblane committed suicide after becoming a victim of these scammers.

The BBC also noted that they found guides on social media for sextortion. The sextortion scammers mostly pose as potential romantic partners and compel the victims to share similar images by sending inappropriate photos in exchange. When the images are received, the scammers demand money which if not paid, will make the images viral.

Meta revealed that the accounts that it had shut down were connected to a large group of Nigerian cybercriminals referred to as “Yahoo Boys” which have been blacklisted by the company alongside other organisations and persons deemed dangerous.

The following technologies are used by Meta to prevent sextortion: automatically pixelating nude images in messages, allowing users to block and report suspicious profiles.