A coordinated international operation has disrupted transnational scam networks operating from West Africa, leading to 28 arrests, the removal of more than 3.7 million fraudulent accounts, and the identification of over $11 million in potentially freezable funds.
The action, called “Joint Disruption Week,” was announced by the U.S. Department of Justice and hosted by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
The operation targeted scam centers in Nigeria, Ghana, and other African countries. These networks used fake identities, social media platforms, and cryptocurrency-based schemes to defraud victims in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries.
Global Crackdown Targets Scam Centers
During the week beginning October 6, law enforcement agencies and private companies shared real-time intelligence to locate and disrupt scam operations.
The companies involved removed more than 3.7 million accounts, Pages, and Groups used to target people across multiple countries. They also shared leads on more than 30 suspected scam centers with investigators.
In Ghana, authorities arrested 19 people in the Accra suburb of Sasaabi and seized 303 electronic devices. Investigators identified 117 victims of human trafficking who are now awaiting repatriation to Nigeria. They also identified 89 scam victims with estimated losses of about $8.3 million.
In Nigeria, authorities arrested nine individuals and seized 53 electronic devices. The seized devices may contain evidence linking suspects to fraud campaigns, victim lists, fake profiles, and cryptocurrency transactions.
The crackdown also targeted several common fraud types, including law enforcement impersonation scams, digital “arrest” extortion schemes, and cryptocurrency investment fraud, often called “pig butchering.” In these scams, criminals build trust with victims over time before persuading them to invest money in fake trading platforms.
The operation brought together agencies from the United States, United Kingdom, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand, along with INTERPOL and cybercrime units. U.S. participants included the FBI, Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, Treasury Department, and the Justice Department’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative.
Technology and financial companies also played an important role. Meta, Google, Microsoft, Adobe, OpenAI, Binance, Coinbase, Chainalysis, Elliptic, TRM Labs, Flashpoint, Silent Push, Starlink, and Cyjax voluntarily acted against scam infrastructure on their platforms.
Meta helped coordinate the private-sector participation. The companies’ actions show that online platforms can quickly remove fraudulent accounts while law enforcement pursues arrests, seizures, and financial disruption.
The scale of the problem remains significant. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported 72,984 investment scams in 2025, with cryptocurrency investment fraud making up 72 percent of those reports.
Reported losses from investment scams increased from $3.96 billion in 2023 to $5.8 billion in 2024. Reported cryptocurrency-linked investment scam losses rose 24 percent in 2025 to more than $7.2 billion.
Officials said the latest operation is only the beginning. The Justice Department’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative and the Scam Center Strike Force plan to continue working with international partners and private companies to dismantle scam networks, disrupt their funding, and protect victims.
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