Meta and fourteen other leading technology companies have joined law enforcement counterparts from ten countries to disrupt criminal scam networks operating in West Africa, in the largest operation of its kind to date.
As part of the operation, Meta, in a statement, said it removed more than 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram that were based in West Africa. A majority of these appeared to have been targeting people in the United States and the United Kingdom using profiles that impersonated American and British users. Microsoft also took action to suspend accounts suspected of being associated with the scam activity.
The operation, hosted by the National Crime Agency in London in partnership with the US Department of Justice, the FBI and several US federal agencies, marked the first joint disruption to broadly target criminal scam networks in the West African region.
Leads on over 30 scam centres were shared, and law enforcement confirmed arrests of 28 individuals, as well as the rescue of 117 victims who had been trafficked as part of criminal operations. The victims had been forced to work for scam operations by criminal syndicates and were rescued from imprisonment in a residential compound in Ghana. They were malnourished and subjected to both physical and psychological abuses by their captors, who were arrested and are facing prosecution.
Coinbase proactively identified more than 65 active scam victims and stopped more than US$415,000 in potential losses before they occurred.
Fraud types disrupted
The operation identified and disrupted a range of fraud types connected to these networks, including investment scams, job or task scams, law enforcement impersonation scams, military impersonation scams, non-delivery scams, romance scams and scam recovery schemes.
"Scams are a global threat that demand a global response. Last week, working with the UK National Crime Agency, the FBI, DOJ, and the Homeland Security Task Force, we took the fight to scam centers across West Africa. As part of the disruption, we removed more than 3.7 million accounts, Pages and Groups targeting people in the US, UK, and beyond, and shared leads on over 30 suspected scam centers resulting in dozens of arrests, the rescue of trafficking victims, and cryptocurrency seizures. This operation shows what partnership makes possible, and we'll keep working with law enforcement and industry to pursue scammers wherever they operate," said Mr Chris Sonderby, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Meta.
The Deputy Director of Fraud at the National Crime Agency, Mr Nick Sharp, said fraud is a global problem that requires partnership across international boundaries. He said collaborating in this way sends a clear signal to criminals that the combined capabilities of law enforcement and industry means they will be relentlessly pursued.
The FBI Director, Mr Kash Patel, said the operation had resulted in the arrest of dozens of criminal actors, the seizure of hundreds of devices and the identification of at least US$11 million in potentially freezable funds. "We are demolishing Scam Centers across the globe and crushing a criminal industry preying on American citizens," he said.
The US Attorney for the District of Columbia and Founder of the Scam Center Strike Force, Ms Jeanine Ferris Pirro, said transnational fraud demands a transnational response. "Criminals are not hindered by borders and neither are we," she said.
Other partners, including Chainalysis, Coinbase, Microsoft, OpenAI, Silent Push, Starlink and TRM Labs, also shared intelligence and took action against scam infrastructure.
Meta said that while technology companies play a pivotal role in disrupting scam operations, meaningful progress ultimately depends on real consequences for the criminal organisations behind these schemes.
Meta Description: Meta removed more than 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram in a global crackdown on West African scam networks, with 28 arrests and 117 victims rescued.
