Officials announced a massive, coordinated anti-scam operation led by Meta alongside the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Justice (DOJ), Microsoft, Coinbase and Starlink, resulting in 63 arrests, millions of dollars in frozen cryptocurrency and the removal of over a million scam-related online accounts.
The initiative, announced Tuesday, represents Meta’s largest disruption campaign to date. It was described as the first coordinated effort of its kind to unite major technology companies, financial platforms and global law enforcement agencies against the broader fraud ecosystem.
Globally, recent federal efforts against these networks have resulted in the arrests of more than 300 individuals, the rescue of over 2,000 human trafficking victims and the seizure of billions in illicit cryptocurrency.
“Protecting people around the world from scams is one of our highest priorities. We’re proud to partner with industry and DOJ, FBI, Royal Thai Police, and other law enforcement agencies in taking this global fight directly to these Asia-based scam centers at their source,” said Chris Sonderby, Meta’s vice president and deputy general counsel, in a statement.
The operation spanned Washington, D.C., and Thailand, utilizing the U.S. Secret Service alongside law enforcement agencies from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Thailand.
Authorities say these criminal networks steal billions of dollars from Americans annually through romance scams and cryptocurrency investment fraud. Several of the targeted organizations operate out of forced-labor compounds in Southeast Asia run by transnational organized crime groups.
During the crackdown, Meta has successfully removed about 1.4 million scam accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram, while the Royal Thai Police arrested 63 people suspected of having connections to the scam centers.
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