Meta Eliminates 63,000 Instagram Profiles Connected to Nigerian Sextortion Schemes
Meta Platforms announced on Wednesday that it has taken action to delete approximately 63,000 Instagram profiles in Nigeria that were associated with financial sextortion schemes.
“A bulk of these comprised of a smaller coordinated network of about 2,500 profiles which could be linked to a clique of roughly 20 individuals,” the corporation stated. “Their main targets were adult men in the U.S. and they used fake profiles to conceal their true identities.”
In instances where some of these profiles attempted to target minors, Meta stated that they were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
In addition, Meta disclosed that it has also eradicated 7,200 entities, including 1,300 Facebook profiles, 200 Facebook Pages, and 5,700 Facebook Groups in Nigeria that were employed to coordinate, recruit, and instruct new fraudsters.
Meta linked the second cluster to a cybercrime clique identified as Yahoo Boys, who came into spotlight earlier this year for executing financial sextortion onslaughts targeting teenagers from Australia, Canada, and the United States.
A subsequent report from Bloomberg revealed suicides triggered by sextortion, uncovering how scammers masquerade as teenage girls on Instagram and Snapchat to lure victims and tempt them into sending illicit photos, which are then used to extort money from victims or face having their images circulated to their contacts.
Earlier in April, the social media behemoth mentioned that it has developed new techniques to spot accounts that potentially engage in sextortion, and it is undertaking measures to forestall these accounts from discovering and engaging with teenagers.
“Financial sextortion is a dreadful offense that can have catastrophic effects,” Meta emphasized. “This is an area of conflict where criminals adapt to evade our constantly improving defenses.”
Meta’s actions coincide with INTERPOL’s declaration of a global enforcement operation known as Jackal III, which targeted West African criminal organizations such as Black Axe, leading to numerous arrests and the confiscation of $3 million in illicit assets, including cryptocurrencies and luxury goods.
The operation, which unfolded between April 10 and July 3, 2024, spanned 21 countries and was coordinated with the objective to dismantle transnational organized crime syndicates involved in digital fraud, human trafficking, drug smuggling, and violent crimes both in Africa and worldwide.
“The yearly operation led to roughly 300 arrests, identification of over 400 additional suspects, and freezing over 720 bank accounts,” INTERPOL declared in a press release.
Furthermore, this development follows numerous other law enforcement initiatives to combat cybercrime –
- Vyacheslav Igorevich Penchukov (also known as father and tank), who admitted guilt early this year for his involvement in the Zeus and IcedID malware operations, was sentenced by a U.S. court to nine years in prison and three years of supervised release. He was also directed to pay $73 million in restitution.
- The Ukrainian Cyber Police publicized the apprehension of two individuals involved in financial theft attacks on “major industrial enterprises” in the nation, resulting in losses totaling $145,000 (six million hryvnias). If proven guilty, they could face up to 12 years in prison.
- Spain’s La Guardia Civil arrested three suspected members of NoName057(16), causing the pro-Russian hacktivist group to announce a “holy war” on the nation. The accused individuals are charged with participating in “denial-of-service cyber attacks against public institutions and strategic sectors of Spain and other NATO countries.” The group termed the arrests as a “witch hunt” by Russophobic authorities.
- The U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) stated that it infiltrated and dismantled digitalstress[.]su, a DDoS-for-hire (also known as booter) service associated with “tens of thousands of attacks every week” globally. The suspected owner of the site, identified as Skiop, has also been apprehended. This takedown, part of an ongoing concerted effort named Operation PowerOFF, occurred after German law enforcement disrupted the Stresser.tech DDoS attack service in April 2024.
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