The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested 22 Nigerian nationals in connection with an online sextortion scheme that has been tied to the tragic deaths of over 20 American teenagers since 2021.
Announcing the breakthrough on Thursday, April 24, the FBI described the effort, codenamed Operation Artemis, as the first of its kind, carried out in partnership with agencies in Canada, Australia, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom.
“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 Bureau confirmed.
The scheme typically involved fraudsters posing as young women online, manipulating teenage boys into sending explicit images, then blackmailing them for money under threats of public exposure.
Despite paying the demanded sums, victims often faced relentless threats. FBI investigators described what they found on victims’ devices as devastating: “Analysis of victims’ phones and social media accounts revealed heartbreaking narratives of young kids enduring panicked negotiations in bids to maintain their privacy.”
Authorities say the scale of the crime has surged dramatically. Reports of sextortion to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) jumped from over 34,000 cases in 2022 to more than 54,000 in 2023, with financial losses nearing $65 million.
Speaking on the operation, FBI Special Agent Matthew Crowley shed light on why sextortion has become a preferred method among scammers. “One subject said, ‘It’s easy money. I can just move on to the next one if I don’t get any traction,’” she recounted. Crowley added, “They could target 40 victims in a day. Even if only three victims paid $200 each, that’s $600 earned in a single day.”
The human toll was painfully illustrated by a grieving father who lost his teenage son to suicide after an encounter with the extortionists. “Everything that he loved, every college ambition he had, every friend he had—those things were all threatened right then,” he shared, adding, “This person scared him so badly that he shot himself.”
Officials emphasise that although these arrests mark a major step forward, sextortion remains an escalating global crisis, especially among vulnerable young people.
