The United States and Nigeria have intensified efforts to combat sextortion, romance scams and other transnational cybercrimes.
Both countries are seeking to strengthen intelligence sharing, investigations and prosecution of offenders.
The renewed commitment followed a visit to Abuja by the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Michael Gonzales.
He held meetings with senior officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Office of the National Security Adviser, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and the Nigeria Police Force.
In a statement issued by the US Embassy in Abuja on Monday, the embassy said the discussions coincided with Nigeria’s Cybercrime Awareness Week.
It added that they focused on expanding joint operations against financially motivated sextortion, romance scams and other cyber-enabled crimes.
Gonzales stressed the need for international cooperation to match the speed with which cybercriminals operate across national borders.
He said, “Recent extraditions demonstrates that criminals could not rely on international boundaries to evade justice when both countries combine their investigative, diplomatic and law enforcement capabilities.”
The statement noted that Nigeria extradited two alleged cybercriminals to the United States in August.
The suspects face charges in separate financially motivated sextortion cases involving American minors who died by suicide.
It added that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Legal Attaché Office at the US Embassy in Abuja had worked with the EFCC on 41 extraditions since 2022, including five completed in 2026.
According to the statement, the figure represents a significant increase compared with the period between 2012 and 2021, when the two countries recorded four arrests and five extraditions.
Gonzales commended the EFCC, the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation for their support in investigations and extradition proceedings involving suspects wanted in the United States.
He also emphasised the importance of swift and visible law enforcement action in holding offenders accountable and deterring others from targeting victims.
Highlighting the impact of financially motivated sextortion on young people and their families, the statement disclosed that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received more than 50,000 reports of the crime in 2025, according to US authorities.
“The figure translates to approximately 137 reports daily,” the statement noted.
The statement added that the FBI identifies Nigeria and other parts of West Africa, alongside Southeast Asia, as locations where some of the most prevalent sextortion networks have operated.
It said that, through Operation Artemis and related initiatives, the FBI collaborates with Nigerian authorities to identify and disrupt networks targeting Americans.
The two countries are also working to tackle romance scams, which exploit victims’ trust and emotional relationships to defraud them of their savings and retirement funds.
The Nigeria Police Force’s National Cybercrime Centre launched a nationwide online safety and cyber-hygiene campaign in March to educate the public about romance scams, sextortion, phishing, identity theft and business email compromise.
The campaign forms part of broader efforts to improve public awareness and help individuals recognise and report online threats.
During his meeting with the EFCC, Gonzales praised the commission as one of Africa’s most recognised economic crime enforcement agencies, citing its record of high-profile prosecutions, asset recovery and public engagement.
He also highlighted the agency’s partnership with the FBI as an example of effective international law enforcement cooperation.
According to the statement, the partnership has involved intelligence sharing, suspect identification, arrests and complex extradition proceedings, with some cases requiring years of joint investigative work.
Gonzales, however, called for “the process to become faster, more routine and proactive, with greater emphasis on dismantling criminal networks rather than pursuing individual suspects alone.”
The statement said both countries intended to expand efforts to target the financial infrastructure and facilitators behind cybercrime networks before more victims were harmed.
It said the next phase of cooperation was expected to prioritise stronger information sharing between US and Nigerian agencies, faster conversion of cyber and financial intelligence into investigations, wider public awareness of sextortion and romance scams, and improvements in Nigeria’s investigative, prosecutorial and cybercrime-reporting capabilities.
US authorities also stressed that the effectiveness of the partnership would not be measured solely by the number of programmes funded but by tangible outcomes.
These include the protection of victims, disruption of criminal networks, progress in investigations, successful convictions and stronger Nigerian institutions.
The statement added that the ultimate objective was to build sustainable law enforcement capacity that would serve the interests of both Nigerians and Americans.
