A multinational crackdown on online fraud networks operating in West Africa has led to the rescue of 117 trafficking victims in Ghana, 28 arrests and the identification of more than 30 suspected scam centres.
The operation also saw Meta remove more than 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram suspected of being linked to the criminal networks.
Meta disclosed the development in a web post on Tuesday, saying the operation brought together 14 technology companies and law enforcement agencies from 10 countries.
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) coordinated the operation in partnership with the United States Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other international agencies.
According to Meta, the rescued victims had allegedly been trafficked and forced to work in scam compounds in Ghana. They were reportedly held against their will in a residential compound and subjected to malnutrition, physical abuse and psychological trauma.
The operation targeted several forms of online fraud, including cryptocurrency investment scams, fake job offers, romance fraud, fraudulent online sales and schemes involving impersonation of law enforcement officers and military personnel.
It also focused on scam recovery fraud, in which criminals target people who have previously lost money to online scams by promising to recover their funds in exchange for upfront payments.
Meta said most of the accounts, pages and groups removed appeared to target users in the United States and the United Kingdom. The fraudsters allegedly created profiles impersonating American and British users to deceive their victims.
Microsoft also suspended accounts suspected of being connected to the fraudulent activities, while cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase identified more than 65 active scam victims and prevented potential losses exceeding $415,000.
Other technology companies involved included Google, OpenAI, Starlink and Adobe. Participating law enforcement agencies represented Nigeria, Ghana, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India and other countries.
Meta said the operation demonstrated how intelligence-sharing across digital platforms, financial systems and national borders could help expose criminal networks and disrupt their activities.
The company’s Vice-President and Deputy General Counsel, Chris Sonderby, said Meta would continue working with its partners to pursue scammers and dismantle their operations.
The NCA’s Deputy Director of Fraud, Nick Sharp, said the collaboration had helped authorities target criminals responsible for fraud affecting thousands of victims.
He added that the agency would sustain its partnerships with international authorities and private-sector organisations to combat cross-border fraud.
The operation comes amid growing concerns about organised online fraud, particularly criminal networks that use scam centres to recruit and exploit workers before deploying them to defraud victims across the world.
Meta said effective cooperation between technology companies and law enforcement agencies remained crucial to ensuring that those behind the networks faced consequences and that similar operations could be sustained.