Meta deleted 63,000 'Yahoo Boys' Facebook accounts belonging to Nigerians suspected of financial sextortion.

The US-based company announced this in a statement on Wednesday titled "Combating Financial Sextortion Scams From Nigeria".

The move comes days after the Nigerian consumer regulator, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, levied a $220 million fine on Meta and its instant messaging program, WhatsApp, for data breaches and discriminatory acts 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.

KUGJAY MEDIA reports that ‘Yahoo Boys’ is a term for describing Internet scams in Nigeria.