Meta cracks down on ‘Yahoo Boys’ and thousands of sextortion accounts
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Meta shut down 63,000 Instagram accounts based in Nigeria that it says were engaged in financial sextortion scams and connected to what Meta calls a “loosely organized” group of cybercriminals known as the “Yahoo Boys.”
Meta has been getting serious about cracking down on sextortion scams and educating users about how to avoid them. Earlier this year, Meta said it would automatically send suspected sextortion account messages to users’ hidden requests folder. If users were already talking to a potential scam or sextortion account, it would display a safety notice prompting them to report threats to share private images. Meta said it would also make it so that potential sextortion accounts wouldn’t be able to view the “Message” button on…