Meta has announced some new measures to combat the rise of sextortion scams, which is the fastest-growing cybercrime, now impacting thousands of Facebook and IG users. Indeed, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), sextortion cases have risen by 300% over the past three years.
First off, Meta’s increasing its detection measures to highlight potential sextortion accounts, with new elements displayed on connection requests that highlight possible elements of concern.
As you can see in this example, now, IG connection requests sent to teen users will include notes on how long the account has been active, whether it’s based in another country, and if you don’t have any mutual followers. The new signals will help young users make more informed choices about who they connect with, which could stop sextortion scammers in their tracks.
Using these same indicators, Meta’s also implementing new restrictions on who can see your follower list.
As explained by Meta:
“Sextortion scammers often use the following and follower lists of their targets to try and blackmail them. Now, accounts we detect as showing signals of scammy behavior won’t be able to see people’s follower or following lists, removing their ability to exploit this feature.”
This could be a significant measure, in terms of restricting threats of blackmail to users, limiting the capacity for scammers to extort money for intimate images.
Meta’s also implementing restrictions on screenshotting and screen recording for ephemeral images or videos, while it’s also expanding its blur feature for detected nudes.
“This feature, which will be enabled by default for teens under 18, will blur images that we detect contain nudity when sent or received in Instagram DMs and will warn people of the risks associated with sending sensitive images.”
In addition to this, Meta’s also expanding its partnership with NCMEC and Thorn to develop new educational resources to help teens recognize signs that someone may be a sextortion scammer.
The main component here is a new video which will outline key elements to look for to detect such scams.
“The video directs teens to instagram.com/preventsextortion, which includes tips – co-developed by Meta and Thorn – for teens affected by sextortion scams, a link to NCMEC’s Take It Down tool, which helps prevent teens’ intimate images being shared online, and live chat support from Crisis Text Line in the US.”
Meta says that it will highlight this video to millions of teens and young adults on Instagram in the US, UK, Canada and Australia – countries commonly targeted by sextortion scammers.
Earlier this year, Meta also partnered with NCMEC on its “Take it Down” initiative, which provides a privacy-friendly way to address the spread of intimate images online, while it also partnered with Thorn on a new guide for teens on how they can avoid sextortion online.
As noted, sextortion is a rising concern, with coordinated groups now working together to target young users, and blackmail them with their own intimate images.
Back in July, Meta removed around 70k profiles, Pages and groups linked to a sextortion group operating out of Nigeria, while just last week, Meta removed another 800 Facebook Groups, and 820 accounts, linked to a known sextortion group known as “Yahoo Boys”.
Given the increasing incidence of such, it makes sense for Meta to provide more information and security measures, and these new tools could be a big help in limiting the impact of sextortion scammers.
