Meta said today it removed more than 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups across Instagram and Facebook during a joint operation against scam networks operating in West Africa, including Nigeria and Ghana. Law enforcement confirmed 28 arrests and the rescue of 117 trafficking victims, while Coinbase prevented more than $415,000 in potential losses, according to Meta. Most of the removed accounts, pages and groups appeared to target US and UK users through profiles posing as Americans and Britons.
Coinbase identified more than 65 people being actively scammed and intervened before the potential losses occurred, Meta said. Microsoft suspended accounts it suspected were linked to the scams. FBI Director Kash Patel separately said the operation identified at least $11 million in funds that could potentially be frozen, a different measure from the losses Coinbase prevented.
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The 117 people rescued in Ghana had been trafficked into scam operations and imprisoned in a residential compound, according to Meta. They were malnourished and had suffered psychological and physical abuse; their captors were arrested and face prosecution, the company said. Participants also passed along leads concerning more than 30 scam centers.
The National Crime Agency hosted the operation at its London headquarters, beginning October 6, with the FBI, the US Department of Justice and other US agencies helping coordinate it. Google, Adobe, OpenAI and Starlink participated alongside Meta, Microsoft and Coinbase. Ghanaian and Nigerian authorities joined law enforcement partners representing India, New Zealand, Canada and Australia.
Over several days, participants combined intelligence from financial systems, different jurisdictions and online platforms to identify criminal networks, Meta said. Their work covered recruitment into scam operations, infrastructure, identifying victims and tracking money transfers. Most of the activity targeted people in the US, though victims were also sought in the UK and elsewhere.
Meta described this as the first coordinated disruption aimed broadly at West African scam networks, which it said tend to be less centralized and industrialized than operations in southeast Asia. The fraud uncovered included fake jobs requiring advance payments, impersonation of authorities to extort money and promises to recover earlier scam losses for a fee. Investigators also targeted schemes that used fabricated personal or professional relationships to draw victims into fraudulent investments, including cryptocurrency schemes.
