Meta is shutting down around 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria that have been used for scams involving sexual blackmail. The tech giant has also removed thousands of Facebook groups and pages that attempt to organize, recruit, and train new scammers.
It involves accounts that have been used to persuade victims to send nude photos or images of a sexual nature, and then threaten to publish the images to extort money or sexual services from the victims.
Recently, two Nigerian brothers were exposed for blackmailing teenage boys and young men in Michigan, USA. One of the victims took their own life.
The number of scams of the above type has increased in recent years. Many of the victims are children. Behind a large part of the scams is a loosely organized criminal group that mainly operates from Nigeria, according to Meta.
The group members' accounts, as well as websites used to organize the crimes and recruit new scammers, have now been shut down.
