Meta Removes 63,000 Accounts Linked to Cybercrime Activities

Meta Platforms Inc., the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has deleted 63,000 fake accounts. These accounts were part of a scam group called “Yahoo Boys.” The company announced this in its recent report. 

They found these accounts in the last few weeks, using them to trick people and spread harmful blackmailing tools. Meta also found a smaller group of 2,500 accounts run by about 20 people who tried to trick adult men in the U.S. by pretending to be someone else. 

Meta used smart technology and detailed checks to find and shut down these fake accounts and has made their system better at spotting scams.

“Yahoo Boys” are mostly from Nigeria and do various online scams. Meta has removed about 63,000 such accounts from Nigeria. They also closed down Facebook accounts, pages, and groups used by these scammers to gather more people, and recruit, and teach new scammers.

Most of the scam attempts didn’t work, but some targeted kids and Meta reported these cases to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. Meta also works with other tech companies through a program called Tech Coalition’s Lantern to stop scams on different platforms.

Meta closed about 7,200 places in Nigeria that shared scam tricks and fake photos for creating fake profiles. Since then, They have been good at stopping these scammers from coming back and keeps getting better at finding them.

Meta helps the police and supports them by providing information needed for investigations and warnings about serious threats. They also help run a program called Project Boost, which teaches police worldwide how to handle these cases. They’ve held training sessions in places like Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire.

To keep young users safe, they have set up stricter messaging rules for those under 16 years old (or under 18 in some places) and have issued warnings to encourage safe online behavior.

Recently, Nigeria fined Meta $220 million because they said it broke data protection laws with WhatsApp. They said it shared user data without permission and didn’t treat everyone fairly. Meta doesn’t agree with these claims and plans to challenge this decision.