By Mary Izuaka

 

Meta said it has removed over 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram linked to criminal scam networks operating from West Africa, including Nigeria and Ghana.

The removal was part of a major joint operation between leading technology companies and international law enforcement agencies to disrupt online fraud operations originating from the region, Meta said in a web post on Tuesday.

Meta said the operation was hosted by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in London in partnership with the United States Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and several other US federal agencies.

Other technology companies involved in the operation include Coinbase, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Starlink and Adobe.

Meta said the operation marks the latest and largest instance of tech companies collaborating with global law enforcement to share information, dismantle sophisticated criminal networks and protect users from online scams.

“This is the first joint disruption to broadly target criminal scam networks in the West Africa region,” Meta said.

It noted that scam centres based in Nigeria, Ghana, and other nations in the region are generally more decentralised 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 organise and operate,” the statement said.

Giving a breakdown of the operation’s results, Meta said the majority of the 3.7 million accounts removed 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,” it said.

The companies said 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 were trafficked as part of criminal operations.

“Coinbase proactively identified more than 65 active scam victims and stopped more than $415,000 in potential losses before they occurred.

“Information shared provided new opportunities to deepen investigations, enabling platforms to grow their scale of detection and enforcement against criminal groups,” Meta said.

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Meta Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Chris Sonderby, said: “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 centres 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 centres, 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.”

Also, Deputy Director of Fraud at the National Crime Agency, Nick Sharp, said: “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 utilise 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 mean that we will relentlessly pursue them and the infrastructure they rely on, no matter where they operate.”