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Sextortion scams run by Nigerian criminals are targeting American men, Meta says
So-called sextortion scams are on the rise, with criminals from Nigeria frequently targeting adult men in the U.S., according to social media giant Meta.
Meta on Wednesday said it has removed about 63,000 accounts from Nigeria that had been attempting to target people with financial sextortion scams. In such scams, criminals pretend to be someone else, typically an attractive woman, in an attempt to trick potential victims into sending nude photos of themselves. Upon receiving nude pics, the scammer then threatens to release the photos unless the sender pays up.
Meta’s crackdown on sextortion has included the removal of 200 Facebook pages and 5,700 Facebook groups, all from Nigeria, that were providing tips for conducting such scams, such as scripts for talking with victims. The groups also included links to collections of photos that scammers could use when making fake accounts to catfish victims, Meta said.
Meta is also testing new technology that could steer victims away from falling for sextortion scams, such as a new auto-blur feature in Instagram DMs that will blur images if nudity is detected, the company said.
“First of all, this goes without saying that financial sextortion is a horrific crime and can have devastating consequences,” said Antigone Davis, Meta’s global head of safety, in a call with reporters. “It’s why we are particularly focused on it right now.”
The most common platforms for sextortion scams are Instagram, owned by Meta, and Snapchat, according to a recent study from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Thorn, a nonprofit that uses technology to battle the spread of child sexual abuse material. According to the study, most sextortion scams originate from either Nigeria or Cote d’Ivoire.
Indiscriminate scammers
Meta said it found that scammers are “indiscriminate,” sending requests to many individuals in order to get a few responses, Davis said. While most of the attempts were sent to adult men in the U.S., Meta did see some scammers trying to reach teens, she added.
Some of the Facebook accounts, pages and groups removed by Meta were run by the Yahoo Boys, a loose federation of scammers that operate in Nigeria, Davis said.
The FBI has sought to highlight the issue of financial sextortion scams targeting teenagers, with the agency noting that at least 20 children who were victims of these scams had died by suicide. Many victims feel fear, embarrassment and concerns about long-term consequences, according to the Thorn and NCMEC report.
Social media users should be cautious if an account with a “very stylized, especially good-looking” photo reaches out to them or asks to exchange messages, Davis said. “If you have never been messaged by this person before, that should give you pause,” she added.
“If somebody sends you an image first, that is often to try to bait you to send an image second, or try to gain trust and build trust,” Davis noted. “This is one of those areas where if you have any suspicion, I would urge caution.”
Social media users should also look at their privacy settings for messaging, she recommended. For instance, people can control their Facebook Messenger settings to filter the people from whom they can receive messages, such as blocking people other than their Facebook friends.
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Paul Whelan, freed in prisoner swap with Russia, tells other American detainees: “We’re coming for you”
Washington — Nearly seven weeks after the Russians handed over Paul Whelan on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, the Marine veteran stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with a message for other Americans who are held abroad.
“We’re coming for you,” he told reporters Tuesday night after he met with lawmakers. “It might take time, but we’re coming.”
Whelan said he spoke with lawmakers about how the government can better support detainees after they’re released.
“We spoke about how the next person’s experience could be better,” he said. “What the government could do for the next person that’s held hostage and comes home — the care and support that other people might need, especially people that are in a worse situation. There are people coming back that lived in the dirt without shoes for three years, people that were locked up in hideous conditions for 20 years. They need support.”
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The U.S. secured Whelan’s release in August in one of the largest prisoner swaps since the end of the Cold War. The complex deal came after months of sensitive negotiations between the U.S., Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway.
As part of the deal, Russia released 16 prisoners while the Western countries released eight Russians. Whelan was released alongside Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a U.S. green card holder and Kremlin critic.
Whelan, who had been the longest-held American detainee in Russia, was arrested in December 2018 when he traveled to the country to attend a friend’s wedding. He was convicted of espionage in a secret trial and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Whelan, his family and the U.S. government vehemently denied that he was a spy and accused Russia of using him as a political pawn. The U.S. government considered him to be wrongfully detained, a rare designation that put more government resources toward securing his release.
But a deal to secure his freedom was long elusive. He remained behind bars as Russia freed Marine veteran Trevor Reed and women’s basketball star Brittney Griner — both of whom were detained after Whelan’s arrest — in prisoner swaps with the U.S.
The U.S. said it pushed for his inclusion in both exchanges, but Russia refused. It led to Whelan advocating for his own release from a remote prison camp, calling government officials and journalists to make sure that he wasn’t forgotten.
When the plane carrying Whelan, Gershkovish and Kurmasheva landed in Maryland on Aug. 1, Whelan was the first to disembark. He was greeted by President Biden, who gave Whelan his American flag pin, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Whether he likes it or not, he changed the world,” Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
Whelan’s case and his family’s constant pressure on the U.S. government brought more attention to the cases of Americans who are wrongfully detained by foreign governments.
Haley said Whelan is a reminder to other Americans considering traveling to Russia that “you have a target on your back.”
Whelan said it’s been an adjustment acclimating to life back in the U.S., especially learning the latest technology like his iPhone 15.
“I was in a really remote part of Russia,” he said. “We really didn’t have much. The conditions were poor. The Russians said the poor conditions were part of the punishment. And coming back to see this sort of thing now is a bit of a shock, but it’s a good shock.”