EFCC warns Nigerian girls against sextortion, cybercrime
The EFCC has warned young Nigerian girls against sextortion and involvement in cybercrime, urging them to protect their integrity and avoid being used. Read More:…
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has repeatedly flagged the growing involvement of young Nigerians, including teenage girls, in cybercrime schemes popularly known as "Yahoo Yahoo," which range from romance scams to sextortion rings targeting victims abroad. Sextortion — blackmailing individuals with compromising images or videos obtained online — has emerged as a fast-growing offshoot of this ecosystem, with law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and abroad noting that some syndicates recruit young women as "account mules" or as bait to lure targets before extorting them.
The latest warning from EFCC chairman Olukoyede, as reported, frames the issue partly as one of national reputation, linking individual involvement in online fraud to Nigeria's broader image problem internationally. Both Punch and Premium Times agree on the substance of the warning, with Premium Times providing a direct quote from the EFCC chair; neither report specifies what prompted the warning, whether it was tied to a particular case or event, or what concrete measures, if any, the commission plans to introduce to curb the trend among young women.