Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced the removal of 63,000 accounts linked to the notorious “Yahoo Boys” scam group in its Q1 2024 Adversarial Threat Report released on Wednesday.
These accounts, deleted over the past few weeks, were involved in financial sextortion scams and distributing blackmail scripts. A smaller network of 2,500 accounts, associated with about 20 individuals, primarily targeted adult men in the United States using fake identities.
Meta identified and disabled these accounts using a combination of advanced technical signals and comprehensive investigations, which enhanced its automated detection systems.
“Financial sextortion is a borderless crime, fueled in recent years by the increased activity of Yahoo Boys, loosely organized cybercriminals operating largely out of Nigeria that specialize in different types of scams,” the report stated.
“We have removed around 63,000 accounts in Nigeria attempting to target people with financial sextortion scams, including a coordinated network of around 2,500 accounts.”
Meta also removed Facebook accounts, pages, and groups run by Yahoo Boys, banned under its dangerous organizations and individuals policy, which were being used to organize, recruit, and train new scammers.
During the investigation, Meta found that most scam attempts were unsuccessful, although some targeted minors, with those cases reported to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
Meta shared information with other tech companies via the Tech Coalition’s Lantern program to help curb these scams across platforms. Additionally, Meta removed around 7,200 assets in Nigeria, including 1,300 Facebook accounts, 200 pages, and 5,700 groups that provided scam-related resources such as scripts and guides for scams, and links to collections of photos for creating fake accounts.
Since this disruption, Meta’s systems have actively blocked attempts by these groups to return, continually improving their detection capabilities. The company has been working closely with law enforcement, supporting investigations and prosecutions by responding to legal requests and alerting authorities to imminent threats.
Beyond account removal, Meta supports the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the International Justice Mission to run Project Boost, a program that trains law enforcement agencies globally in processing and acting on NCMEC reports. Recent training sessions have been conducted in Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire.
To protect users, especially teens, Meta has implemented stricter messaging settings for users under 16 (under 18 in certain countries) and displays safety notices to encourage cautious behavior online.
In related news, last week Meta was fined $220 million by Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission for multiple violations of data protection laws linked to WhatsApp. The investigation, initiated in May 2021, found that Meta’s privacy policies infringed on users’ rights, including unauthorized data sharing and discriminatory practices. Meta plans to appeal the decision, arguing that it disagrees with the findings and the imposed penalty.
