Meta, tech giants, law enforcement crack down on West African scam networks

Omeiza Bilal 

Meta and 14 other technology companies have teamed up with law enforcement agencies from 10 countries, including Nigeria and Ghana, in the largest joint operation yet against online scam networks in West Africa, leading to 28 arrests and the rescue of 117 trafficking victims.

The operation, announced by Meta, was hosted by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) in London in partnership with the US Department of Justice, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and other American agencies. It began on Tuesday, October 6.

Participants included Coinbase, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Starlink and Adobe. Nigerian and Ghanaian law enforcement joined counterparts from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India.

Meta said it removed more than 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram based in West Africa. 

A majority appeared to target people in the US and UK using profiles that impersonated American and British users. Microsoft also suspended accounts suspected of links to the scams.

Leads on over 30 scam centres were shared with investigators. Coinbase said it identified more than 65 active scam victims and stopped over $415,000 in potential losses before they occurred.

The 117 rescued victims had been trafficked to work against their will in scam compounds in Ghana, Meta said. 

They were held in a residential compound, malnourished and subjected to physical and psychological abuse. Their captors were arrested and face prosecution.

“Scams are a global threat that demand a global response,” said Chris Sonderby, Meta’s Vice President and Deputy General Counsel. “This operation shows what partnership makes possible, and we’ll keep working with law enforcement and industry to pursue scammers wherever they operate.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said the effort led to the arrest of dozens of criminal actors and the seizure of hundreds of devices. He said investigators identified at least $11 million in potentially freezable funds.

“We are demolishing Scam Centers across the globe and crushing a criminal industry preying on American citizens,” Patel said.

The operation covered investment, job or task, romance, law enforcement impersonation, military impersonation, non-delivery and scam recovery frauds. Meta said teams traced activity from scammer recruitment and infrastructure to victim identification and the movement of funds.

According to Meta, scam centres in Nigeria, Ghana and neighbouring countries are generally more decentralised and less industrial than those in Southeast Asia. It described the exercise as the first joint disruption to broadly target criminal scam networks in West Africa.

Nick Sharp, the NCA’s Deputy Director of Fraud, said fraudsters can operate from anywhere and target victims at home and abroad.

“The NCA will continue to work with international and private sector partners to tackle fraudsters working upstream, overseas, and online,” Sharp said.

Industry partners also contributed. Silent Push said it mapped more than 35,000 malicious domains and nearly 700 communication channels tied to scam centres operating across Africa. Its Director of Preemptive Cyber Defense, Michael Sweeney, said the mapping helped law enforcement trace the networks to physical locations and their operators.

Coinbase’s Vice President, Leah Bressack, said criminal networks were trying to re-establish themselves in Africa after similar compounds were disrupted in Southeast Asia earlier this year.

“Coinbase’s Global Intelligence team is following the money, freezing assets, and sharing intelligence in real time so law enforcement can act,” Bressack said.

Starlink acknowledged abuse risks. Lauren Dreyer, Vice President of Starlink Business Operations at SpaceX, said its Acceptable Use Policy strictly prohibits fraud and that the company disables any kits involved in illegal activity.

Steven Masada of Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit said no single organisation sees the full picture of such networks. TRM Labs said it helped trace scam proceeds toward freezing and seizure, and exposed a large-scale peer-to-peer laundering network operating across the UK, US and West Africa.

US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, who leads the Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force, said the team would act wherever transnational criminals target victims. Britain’s Minister for Fraud, Lord Hanson, said an Online Crime Centre would build on the work.

Meta said it and its partners were committed to keeping the model of industry and law enforcement working side by side “strong and repeatable.”