Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, says it has deleted another 1,600 groups linked to ‘Yahoo Boys’ from its platform.

The development comes three months after the company removed 63,000 accounts in Nigeria linked to sextortion scams.

In a statement on Thursday, Meta also announced that Instagram is taking measures to further protect people from sextortion.

“We removed around 1,600 Facebook Groups and accounts that were affiliated with Yahoo Boys, and were attempting to organize, recruit and train new scammers,” Meta said.

“This comes after we announced in July that we’d removed around 7,200 Facebook assets that were engaging in similar behaviour.

“Yahoo Boys are banned under Meta’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy — one of our strictest policies — which means we remove Yahoo Boys’ accounts engaged in this criminal activity whenever we become aware of them.

“While we’ve been removing violating Yahoo Boys accounts for years, we’re putting new processes in place which will allow us to identify and remove these accounts more quickly.”

MEASURES TO PREVENT SCAMS

Meta said it has put measures to prevent the activities of scammers.

This, the firm said, includes hiding follower and following lists from potential sextortion scammers, preventing screenshots of certain images in direct messages (DMs), and rolling out our nudity protection feature globally.

“These updates, which are part of a campaign informed by NCMEC, Thorn & Childnet, also aim to help parents feel more equipped to support their teens in avoiding these scams,” Meta said.

“Sextortion is a horrific crime, where financially-driven scammers target young adults and teens around the world, threatening to expose their intimate imagery if they don’t get what they want.

“Today, we’re announcing new measures in our fight against these criminals – including new safety features to further help prevent sextortion on our apps, building on protections already in place.”

To further protect people from sextortion and make it difficult for criminals to succeed, the Meta said, “we’re making it harder for accounts showing signals of potentially scammy behavior to request to follow teens”.

“Depending on the strength of these signals – which include how new an account is – we’ll either block the follow request completely, or send it to a teen’s spam folder,” the company added.

Meta also said sextortion scammers often use the following and follower lists of their targets to try and blackmail them.

The company said potential scammers would be unable to see people’s follower or following lists, accounts that have liked someone’s posts, or other accounts that have been tagged in their photos.

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria has threatened to withdraw its services from the ports and jetties if the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding fails to pay its members under their employment their nine-month salary areas.

The union also warned of an impending industrial crisis in the maritime sector if the issue is not resolved as soon as possible.

MWUN disclosed this in a statement on Thursday by its Deputy Secretary-General, Oniha Erazua.

Erazua said the union has made several efforts to resolve the matter amicably through various ultimatums and mediatory meetings, including the latest one held in Abuja on September 18, 2024.

He alleged that the management of CRFFN, led by its acting Registrar, has repeatedly ignored these attempts and failed to uphold resolutions that prioritize staff welfare.

One of these resolutions, according to him, stipulated that available funds should first be allocated to staff salaries before other expenses are considered.

The union’s scribe expressed dismay at the continued disregard for this agreement, accusing the CRFFN management of organizing a selective training program while ignoring the backlog of unpaid salaries.

He further accused CRFFN of a nonchalant attitude towards the welfare of its employees.

“If the management of CRFFN does not immediately settle the outstanding salary arrears, the union would be forced to withdraw the services of its members,” Erezua warned.

According to him, the action would affect operations at the Nigerian Ports Authority, dock labor, “shipping and freight forwarding agencies, and seamen across all ports, jetties, terminals, and oil and gas platforms nationwide”.

He called on relevant authorities to take note of the situation, emphasizing that it can no longer tolerate what it considers impunity by the CRFFN.

A source close to CRFFN confirmed what the union said.

“What the union said is true, you know the government removed CRFFN from the budget in January, and the council has been struggling since then. Imagine what it means for someone to be working since January and have no salary.

“They managed to pay January’s salary around May and since then, they have not paid anything. Even the January salary didn’t round, some people were paid while others are yet to collect. The staff members have been quite understanding; other staff members from other agencies won’t take what CRFFN is taking. They will promise you that they will pay today, and they won’t pay again,” the source who spoke in confidence due to lack of authorisation to speak on the matter, stated.

Jumia, a pan-African e-commerce platform, has announced plans to close its South African online fashion retailer, ‘Zando’, by the end of the year.

Speaking to Reuters on Tuesday, Francis Dufay, chief executive officer (CEO) of Jumia, said the company’s Tunisian operations will also be shut down to focus on its other markets.

The e-commerce firm operates in 14 countries including Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Uganda, Tunisia, Algeria, Ivory Coast, and South Africa.

Dufay said Jumia’s decision to exit the South African and Tunisian markets is owed to complex macroeconomics, the competitive environment, and low medium-term potential for growth and profitability.

“The trajectory of the countries did not align with the strategy of the group,” he said.

“We believe it’s the right decision. It enables us to refocus our resources on the other nine markets, where we see more promising trends in terms of scale and profitability.”

Dufay said the organisation’s success in other regions, would “easily enable us to recover” lost volumes from South Africa and Tunisia.

“These two businesses accounted for only 2.7% of total orders and 3% of gross merchandise value in the six months ended June 30,” the CEO said.

Dufay said he is not planning to sell either operation, which will hold clearance sales before shutting.

He added that the closures would axe about 110 jobs, but some workers may be relocated to other parts of the group’s business.

Dufay said in South Africa “growth potential is definitely more difficult” because of the highly competitive environment.

Zando.co.za was founded in 2012 and has since grown to become a well-known South African online fashion platform.

In Tunisia, the business has been operating under the Jumia brand for a decade, selling general merchandise.

On December 14, Jumia said it would shut down its food delivery business, Jumia Food, by the end of December 2023.