The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested 22 Nigerians allegedly involved in a sextortion scheme that has been linked to more than 20 teen suicides in the United States since 2021, the agency announced on its website.
The arrests were part of Operation Artemis, a groundbreaking global crackdown coordinated by the FBI alongside law enforcement agencies in Canada, Australia, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom.
According to the statement released on Thursday, the operation was launched nearly two years ago after a surge in reports involving teen boys being coerced into sharing explicit photos online, followed by blackmail threats demanding money.
“As a result of Operation Artemis, FBI investigations led to the arrest of 22 Nigerian subjects, with at least one arrest tied to an American victim who took their own life,” the FBI said.
The FBI, working closely with Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), interviewed several suspects in Lagos, aiming to understand why sextortion had become their preferred crime over others like romance scams or business email compromise.
One suspect admitted, “It’s easy money. I can just move on to the next one if I don’t get any traction.”
Special Agent Matthew Crowley explained, “They could target 40 victims a day, and even if only three paid $200 each, that’s $600 earned in a short time.”
In these sextortion cases, perpetrators pose as young women online to trick minors—primarily boys—into sending nude images. Victims are then threatened with exposure unless they pay, and in many cases, the harassment continues even after payments are made.
The consequences have been devastating. One American father recounted how his 16-year-old son took his own life after being overwhelmed by sextortion threats.
“Everything he loved, every ambition he had, every friend he cherished—was threatened,” the grieving father said. “It’s worse than being shot; he was scared into ending his own life.”
Statistics from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) show a sharp rise in sextortion cases: over 34,000 victims were reported in 2023, increasing to more than 54,000 in 2024, with total losses nearing $65 million in two years.
The Australian Federal Police also reported approximately 300 new sextortion cases monthly, underscoring the global scale of the crisis.
