Meta has delisted at least 63,000 ‘Yahoo Boys’ Facebook accounts belonging to Nigerians suspected to be engaging in financial sextortion.
The US-based firm disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, 24 July, 2024, titled, ‘Combating Financial Sextortion Scams From Nigeria’.
The latest development come few days after the Nigerian consumer regulator, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), imposed a $220 million fine on Meta and its instant messaging platform, WhatsApp over data privacy breaches and discriminatory practices against Nigerians.
Although Meta had earlier expressed its stance to appeal the fine, it said the removal of the 63,000 is a punitive measure against criminal activities.
“We’ve banned ‘Yahoo Boys’ under Meta’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals Policy — one of our strictest policies — which means we remove accounts of ‘Yahoo Boys’ who engage in this criminal activity whenever we become aware of them.
“First, we removed around 63,000 accounts in Nigeria that attempted to directly engage in financial sextortion scams”, it stated.
‘Yahoo Boys’ is a term for describing Internet scams in Nigeria.
