Meta takes down thousands of Facebook accounts running sextortion scams from Nigeria

AP Technology Writer

Meta says it has removed about 63,000 accounts engaging in financial sextortion scams — along with Facebook groups and pages that were trying to organize, recruit and train new scammers. The accounts were located in Nigeria. Meta said it also removed a coordinated network of about 2,500 accounts as part of the takedown. Sexual extortion, or sextortion, involves persuading a person to send explicit photos online and then threatening to make the images public unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual favors.