The FBI has arrested 22 Nigerians allegedly involved in a sextortion scheme that has been linked to over 20 teen suicides in the United States since 2021.
The FBI, in a statement on its website, said the arrests were part of a first-of-its-kind global operation, codenamed Artemis, conducted in collaboration with law enforcement agencies in Canada, Australia, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom.
Operation Artemis was launched by the FBI about two years ago after receiving thousands of reports of teen boys being coerced into sharing sexually explicit photos online and then extorted with threats of exposure unless they paid.
“As a result of Operation Artemis, FBI investigations led to the arrest of 22 Nigerian subjects, with at least one arrest linked to an American victim who took their own life,” the FBI stated.
The FBI and its partners interviewed subjects at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) offices in Lagos.
The agency explained that in these sextortion schemes, minors—typically boys—are befriended online by individuals posing as young women who persuade them to exchange nude photos.
Once the victims comply, they are demanded to send money to prevent the images from being shared.
Investigators noted that even when victims pay, the demands often persist, and threats escalate.
“Analysis of victims’ phones and social media accounts revealed heartbreaking narratives of young kids enduring panicked negotiations in bids to maintain their privacy,” the FBI said.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported over 34,000 sextortion victims in 2023, rising to more than 54,000 last year, with financial losses totaling nearly $65 million over the past two years.
From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) recorded over 12,600 minors—mostly boys—targeted in sextortion schemes. The NCMEC noted a sharp increase, receiving 26,718 reports of financial sextortion in 2023, up from 10,731 in 2022.
The Australian Federal Police reported approximately 300 new sextortion cases monthly in Australia.
In Nigeria, FBI Special Agent Matthew Crowley interviewed suspects to understand their motives for choosing sextortion over other financial scams, such as romance fraud or business email compromise.
“One subject said, ‘It’s easy money. I can just move on to the next one if I don’t get any traction,’” Crowley reported.
She added, “It makes sense why they would go that route because they could target 40 victims in a day working multiple at a time. And maybe of those 40, three pay. But if three paid $200, that’s $600.”
The devastating impact of these schemes was underscored by an American father whose 16-year-old son died by suicide in 2023 after sextortion threats.
“Everything that he loved, every college ambition he had, every girl he liked, every friend he had—those things were all threatened right then,” the father said. “Imagine somebody walking into your home in the middle of the night and shooting your son. Well, this person did something even worse than that. He scared him so bad that he shot himself.”
