DOJ, FBI and Meta disrupt West African scam networks
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International law enforcement agencies and major tech companies, including Meta, said Tuesday they disrupted online scam networks in West Africa, arresting 28 people and rescuing 117 trafficking victims.
Why it matters: Authorities have spent years targeting sprawling scam compounds in Southeast Asia. Now they're expanding those efforts to West Africa, where similar criminal networks are defrauding victims around the world.
Driving the news: The Justice Department, FBI and British National Crime Agency teamed up with 15 tech companies and law enforcement agencies from 10 countries last week in the first coordinated operation focused specifically on West African scam networks.
- U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told reporters during a media call that the operation began with a tip from Meta, which helped investigators identify criminal networks and coordinate enforcement actions.
- Other participating companies included Adobe, Binance, Coinbase, Cyjax, Elliptic, Chainalysis, Flashpoint, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Silent Push, Starlink and TRM Labs.
- Investigators gathered at the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency headquarters in London beginning Oct. 6 to exchange intelligence about scam infrastructure, criminal operators and financial transactions.
What they're saying: "We are not simply trying to stop individual scams," Matthew Floyd, deputy assistant director in the FBI's criminal division, told reporters. "We intend to dismantle the criminal enterprises behind them."
By the numbers: Meta said it removed more than 3.7 million Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups linked to West African scam networks.
- Authorities arrested 19 people in Ghana and nine in Nigeria, seizing 356 electronic devices across the two countries.
- Participating companies identified at least $11 million in potentially freezable funds tied to the networks, according to DOJ.
- Coinbase also identified more than 65 active scam victims and prevented more than $415,000 in potential losses, according to the company.
The big picture: The operation targeted scam networks in Nigeria, Ghana and other West African countries, where criminal operations tend to be smaller and more decentralized than those in Southeast Asia.
- The operation followed a separate series of raids in Ghana in late September, as authorities expand their efforts to dismantle overseas scam compounds targeting Americans.
Threat level: West African scam networks use a range of schemes to steal money, including fraudulent job offers, romance scams, and impersonation of law enforcement and military personnel.
- Unlike the sprawling scam compounds in Southeast Asia, which often focus on cryptocurrency investment fraud, West African operations tend to rely on a broader mix of schemes, officials told reporters during a media call.
- Some scammers even targeted previous fraud victims, promising to recover their lost money in exchange for upfront fees.
Zoom in: The crackdown also exposed the human trafficking operations behind some online scam networks.
- Authorities said they rescued 117 people who were being held against their will in a residential compound in Ghana and forced to participate in scams.
What's next: The victims, who were subjected to malnutrition and physical and psychological abuse, are now awaiting repatriation to Nigeria, according to authorities. Their alleged captors were arrested and are facing prosecution.
