Leading Tech Companies Join Global Law Enforcement in Major Crackdown on West African Scam Networks

Today, Meta, Coinbase, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Starlink, Adobe, and other leading tech companies announced the results of a major joint operation with law enforcement to disrupt criminal scam networks based in West African nations, including Nigeria and Ghana. Hosted by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in London in partnership with the US Department of Justice, the FBI, and several US federal agencies, the operation marked the latest and largest instance of tech companies coming together with law enforcement around the world to share information, take down sophisticated criminals, and help protect people from online scams. 

This is the first joint disruption to broadly target criminal scam networks in the West Africa region. Scam centers based in Nigeria, Ghana, and other nations in the region are generally more decentralized and less industrial than those in southeast Asia. Criminals are continually seeking new havens where they believe they can operate with impunity, and it’s essential that law enforcement, industry, and government work together to disrupt these criminals wherever they may try to organize and operate.

Results of this operation include: 

• Digital Disruptions: As part of the operation, Meta 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 US and UK using profiles that impersonated American and British users. Microsoft also took action to suspend accounts suspected of being associated with the scam activity.
• Real-World Action and Accountability: Leads on over 30 scam centers were shared and law enforcement confirmed arrests of 28 individuals, as well as the rescue of 117 victims who were trafficked as part of criminal operations. 
• Victim Funds Protected: Coinbase proactively identified more than 65 active scam victims and stopped more than $415,000 in potential losses before they occurred.
• Intelligence Gains: Information shared provided new opportunities to deepen investigations, enabling platforms to grow their scale of detection and enforcement against criminal groups.

Working Globally and Across Sectors to Disrupt Criminal Networks

Beginning Tuesday, October 6, the NCA — in coordination with the FBI, the US Department of Justice, Homeland Security Investigations and other US agencies — convened Meta and other leading tech companies at NCA headquarters in London along with Ghanaian law enforcement, Nigerian law enforcement, and other law enforcement partners from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and India. The disruption kicked off with remarks from law enforcement leaders that included a call to action from Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for the District of Columbia and leader of the US Department of Justice Scam Center Strike Force. Other participating US agencies included the US Secret Service, US Department of Treasury, and the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF).

Over the following days, teams shared actionable intelligence to connect information across platforms, jurisdictions, and financial systems in order to identify and target criminal networks at multiple points along the fraud attack chain. Their activity ranged from scammer recruitment and infrastructure to victim identification and the movement of funds, with a majority targeting the US but also reaching people in the UK and around the world. 

Disrupting these criminal centers resulted in the rescue of 117 individuals who had been trafficked to work against their will in scam compounds in Ghana. These victims had been forced to work for scam operations by criminal syndicates and were rescued from imprisonment in a residential compound. The victims were malnourished and subjected to both physical and psychological abuses by their captors, who were arrested and are facing prosecution.

This operation identified and disrupted a range of fraud types connected to these networks, including:

• Investment scams, in which criminals build fake romantic or professional relationships before luring victims into fraudulent investment schemes, including those involving cryptocurrency;
• Job or task scams, in which fraudsters offer fake employment opportunities or online tasks to trick victims into paying upfront fees or transferring money;
• Law enforcement impersonation scams, in which criminals pose as police or government officials to extort victims;
• Military impersonation scams, in which criminals pose as military personnel to gain victims’ trust and solicit money under false pretenses; 
• Non-delivery scams, in which sellers accept payment for goods or services that are never delivered; 
• Romance scams, in which fraudsters build fake romantic relationships to manipulate victims into sending money; and
• Scam recovery, in which prior scam victims are exploited by promises to recover their lost money for an upfront fee, only to be defrauded again.

“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.”

— Chris Sonderby, VP and Deputy General Counsel, Meta

“Fraud is a global problem and it takes partnership working across international boundaries to tackle it. Hosting such a rich and dedicated team of law enforcement and technology companies at NCA’s headquarters enabled us to utilize the power of partnerships and strike back at a significant set of criminals who inflict misery on thousands of victims of fraud. Fraudsters can operate from anywhere and will target victims both domestically and globally. The NCA will continue to work with international and private sector partners to tackle fraudsters working upstream, overseas, and online. Collaborating in this way sends a clear signal to criminals that the combined capabilities of law enforcement and industry means that we will relentlessly pursue them and the infrastructure they rely on no matter where they operate.”

— Nick Sharp, Deputy Director of Fraud at the National Crime Agency 

“Thanks to brilliant partnership with the Department of Justice and the private sector, across multiple African countries, we arrested dozens of criminal actors, seized hundreds of devices, identified at least $11 million in potentially freezable funds, and truly saved lives. This is what happens when law enforcement executes with precision across the interagency. We are demolishing Scam Centers across the globe and crushing a criminal industry preying on American citizens.”

— Kash Patel, Director of the FBI

“Transnational fraud demands a transnational response. I have partnered with the NCA and the Crown Prosecutor for England and Wales to push forward cases on both sides of the Atlantic; criminals are not hindered by borders and neither are we. We will deploy our team wherever in the world transnational criminals target innocent victims.”

— Jeanine Ferris Pirro, US Attorney  for the District of Columbia, Founder of the Scam Center Strike Force 

“Criminal gangs operating overseas are behind most of the scams targeting the British public. That is why these multi-agency operations are critical, and my thanks go to all the officers involved in intercepting and arresting these scammers. Our new Online Crime Centre will build on this work to dismantle criminal networks and bring offenders to justice, wherever in the world they might be.”

— Lord Hanson, Minister for Fraud, UK 

“Fraud networks now run at industrial scale, using AI to target victims and move proceeds across chains faster than any manual process can follow. Effective disruption means more than victim reporting and tracing funds after the fact — it means identifying scam infrastructure early enough to prevent losses. Chainalysis is proud to contribute that capability alongside public and private sector partners to hold these criminal organizations accountable.”

— Will LaForest, Chief Customer Officer, Chainalysis

“When we disrupted scam compounds in Southeast Asia earlier this year, we proved that coordinated action across industry and law enforcement works. As criminal networks try to reestablish in Africa, Coinbase’s Global Intelligence team is following the money, freezing assets, and sharing intelligence in real time so law enforcement can act. This is what sustained pressure looks like.” 

— Leah Bressack, Vice President, Coinbase

“Joint disruption weeks turn shared intelligence into action. In London, law enforcement and industry worked side by side to disrupt the accounts and infrastructure used by criminal scam networks operating in West Africa and develop new leads for future investigations. No single organization sees the full picture, which is why this kind of collaboration matters.”

— Steven Masada, Associate General Counsel and General Manager, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit

“AI gives scam fighters powerful new tools. At OpenAI, we’re using AI to disrupt scam operations and help people spot scams. By sharing insights responsibly with industry and law enforcement partners, we can identify scam networks across platforms and build stronger collective defenses.”

— Jack Stubbs, Lead Scams Investigator, OpenAI

“Silent Push mapped more than 35,000 malicious domains, dedicated internet infrastructure and nearly 700 communication channels tied to scam centers operating across Africa. By pairing that infrastructure mapping with attribution analysis, our team helped law enforcement trace these networks back to physical locations and the operators running them, which led directly to enforcement action on the ground. Scam centers depend on infrastructure to stay hidden. Exposing it is how you put them out of business.”

— Michael Sweeney, Director of Preemptive Cyber Defense at Silent Push

“As with any consumer product, the risk of abuse is always present and is not something that Starlink contends with in isolation. We remain deeply committed to working with the international community to crackdown on criminal scam networks. Starlink’s Acceptable Use Policy strictly prohibits fraud and criminal exploitation, and we are diligent in disabling any kits involved in illegal activity. We appreciate the continued collaboration and progress being made with law enforcement and technology companies that are uniting to make this world safer.” 

— Lauren Dreyer, Vice President of Starlink Business Operations at SpaceX

“In three days of joint work with the National Crime Agency, US law enforcement, and industry partners, TRM helped trace and identify scam proceeds toward freezing and seizure, mapped the infrastructure behind dozens of fraud sites, and followed the money to the people behind it — exposing a large-scale peer-to-peer laundering network and identifying the operators and enablers running active fraud across the UK, US, and West Africa. No single organization produces results like that alone. It takes a team across the public and private sectors — and we want this kind of collaboration to become routine at TRM.”

— Chris Wong, Mission Director at TRM Labs

Fighting Scammers at the Source

Online scams are not a new problem, but they have grown significantly more sophisticated and organized over the past several years. Criminal networks operating from scam centers run what amount to full-scale business operations: recruiting workers, training them in social engineering techniques, and running coordinated, multi-platform fraud campaigns against people around the world. Their operations are deliberately designed to be difficult to detect and disrupt. 

Tech companies play a pivotal role in disrupting scam operations. But meaningful progress ultimately depends on real consequences for the criminal organizations behind these schemes. This model of industry and law enforcement working side by side delivers those consequences, and Meta and our partners are committed to ensuring its ongoing strength and repeatability.