The company announced on Thursday it is testing new features to curb an alarming trend called financial sextortion, which often targets kids and teenagers.
Once the nude images are sent, the scammers claim they’ll post them online, either on public websites or on newsfeeds where their friends will see, unless the victims send money or gift cards.
In the upcoming weeks and among a subset of users, Instagram said it will roll out various new features, such as blurring nude images sent in direct messages and informing users when they’ve interacted with someone who engaged in financial sextortion.
But the FBI recently said it has seen an increase in financial sextortion cases from strangers, often started by scammers overseas.
Meta said it is also working on ways to identify accounts that may be engaging in sextortion scams by detecting and monitoring likely sextortion behavior.
Persons:
Instagram, they’ve, ” Antigone Davis, “ It’s, sextortion, Meta, Meta Meta, ” Davis, “, ”
Organizations:
CNN, FBI, National Center for, Meta, Tech Coalition