Nigeria Targets Online Scams Following Meta Crackdown

Nigeria is reportedly eager to combat online extortion scams following a crackdown by Meta.

The country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is willing to work with global law enforcement to stop suspects based in Nigeria, a spokesperson for the watchdog said, per a Financial Times report published Monday (Aug. 26).

“There’s no safe haven for anyone committing such crimes in Nigeria as far as the EFCC is concerned,” said commission spokesperson Dele Oyewale, according to the report.

His comments came after Meta pulled more than 63,000 fake accounts from Instagram, including what it called a “coordinated network” of 2,500 accounts tied to 20 users, for their role in “sextortion” scams, the report said.

In these scams, fraudsters pose as young women and typically target younger men and boys, soliciting sexually explicit images from them and then extorting money from their victims by threatening to make the images public. In the worst cases, victims have died by suicide, the report said.

“Financial sextortion is a rising and very serious threat targeting our minors nationwide,” Cheyvoryea Gibson, special agent in charge of the FBI in Michigan, where one of the most extreme sextortion cases happened, said in a statement in April, per the report.

The increase in this kind of criminal activity is happening amid a larger uptick in online fraud and scam cases.

Speaking earlier this month with PYMNTS, Featurespace Chief Operating Officer Tim Vanderham noted that “when you think about the billions and billions of dollars that come from scams globally,” the money made from ill-gotten gains dwarfs the revenues of some of the largest businesses around the world.

The interview came against the backdrop of a report by The Wall Street Journal on the rise of “scam dens,” which operate essentially as business centers with sophisticated setups, complete with separate departments for training fraudsters, “onboarding” unwitting victims and KPIs used to determine whether certain scams are working.

“Along the way, fraudsters are proving adept at using artificial intelligence to develop relationships and trust on the part of their victims, preying on human emotions and making off with individuals’ life savings and retirement holdings, draining their bank accounts with brazen speed, notably through authorized push payments,” PYMNTS wrote.