FBI-led Operation Artemis nets 22 sextortion arrests

A joint FBI, RCMP, AFP and Nigerian EFCC operation arrested 22 Nigerians behind financially motivated sextortion schemes targeting teen boys.

The FBI, along with law enforcement partners from Canada, Australia, and Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), conducted Operation Artemis, a first-of-its-kind coordinated effort targeting perpetrators of financially motivated sextortion. The operation, based out of a temporary command post in Lagos in late summer 2023, resulted in the arrest of 22 Nigerian subjects following nearly two years of FBI investigation into thousands of reports of teen boys being tricked into sharing explicit images and then extorted for money, a scheme linked to more than 20 teen suicides in the U.S. since 2021.

The scheme typically involves perpetrators posing as attractive young women online, convincing teenage boys to exchange nude photos, then threatening exposure unless payment is made. Investigators noted the low cost and high volume potential of this fraud compared to other financial crimes like romance fraud or business email compromise, with subjects able to target dozens of victims daily. IC3 data cited in the report shows sextortion victim counts rose from over 34,000 in 2023 to more than 54,000 in 2024, with nearly $65 million in losses over two years.

While this is a law-enforcement and victim-support story rather than a technical cyber-intrusion report, it reflects a significant international collaborative effort—involving the FBI, AFP, RCMP, and EFCC—to disrupt a financially motivated online exploitation scheme with a documented cross-border digital forensics component (analysis of victims' and subjects' phones and social media accounts).

Source reporting: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/fbi-operation-in-nigeria-targeted-perpetrators-of-online-extortion-schemes-that-prey-on-teens