The FBI’s widening international campaign against scam compounds that target Americans led to a series of arrests in Africa last week, along with the seizure of millions of dollars in potentially recoverable funds and the removal of fraud-linked social media accounts, officials said.
Known as Operation Blackout, the FBI initiative focuses on locating and dismantling overseas scam compounds through raids, asset seizures and efforts to disable the online domains and technical infrastructure used by criminal networks.
Investigators also worked to free trafficking victims and help return stolen funds to those defrauded.
“Through an outstanding partnership with the Department of Justice and authorities across several African nations, we arrested 28 alleged criminal actors, seized more than 350 devices, identified at least $11 million in potentially freezable assets, freed more than 100 trafficked workers and located over 100 potential scam victims in the United States,” FBI Director Kash Patel exclusively told News Outlet.
The operation also uncovered more than $11 million in potentially freezable funds, helped remove 3.7 million social media accounts and identified more than 120 trafficked workers for repatriation. (Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“This is the result of law enforcement agencies carrying out precise, coordinated work,” Patel said. “We are dismantling scam centers around the world while genuinely saving lives.”
The latest actions grew out of the broader FBI campaign and included raids and seizures conducted during a London-based “Joint Disruption Week.” The operation produced 28 arrests in Ghana and Nigeria.
Authorities also identified more than 100 scam victims whose reported losses have surpassed $10 million.
The FBI said more than 120 trafficking victims identified during the effort are expected to be repatriated.
In a parallel effort with Meta, officials helped remove more than 3.7 million Facebook and Instagram accounts allegedly connected to fraudulent activity.
“Scams are a global threat that require a global response,” Chris Sonderby, Meta’s vice president and deputy general counsel, said in a company news release about last week’s operations. “Together with the U.K. National Crime Agency, the FBI, DOJ and the Homeland Security Task Force, we took the fight directly to scam centers across West Africa.
“As part of that disruption, we removed more than 3.7 million accounts, Pages and Groups targeting people in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. We also shared intelligence on more than 30 suspected scam centers, contributing to dozens of arrests, the rescue of trafficking victims and cryptocurrency seizures,” Sonderby added.
The FBI’s Operation Blackout produced 28 arrests in Ghana and Nigeria as investigators targeted scam compounds that preyed on Americans. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
In Ghana, 117 victims are awaiting repatriation to Nigeria, while 19 suspects were arrested and detained. Nigerian authorities are expected to prosecute nine people arrested there for alleged violations of Nigerian law, according to the FBI.
The operations in Ghana and Nigeria came after Patel warned that international scam organizations were moving beyond established hubs in Southeast Asia and the Middle East and expanding into Africa.
“That is why these scam compounds are migrating into central and sub-Saharan Africa—and why we are already positioned there to dismantle them,” Patel told News Outlet in September.
The FBI-led operation is aimed at transnational cybercrime organizations running sprawling scam compounds, where trafficked workers are coerced into carrying out fraud schemes against unsuspecting Americans from thousands of miles away.
AMERICANS LOST OVER $20 BILLION TO ONE TYPE OF CRIME. HERE’S HOW WE CAN FIGHT IT
Since its launch, Operation Blackout has led to the seizure of approximately $17 billion, the arrests of hundreds of alleged scammers and the liberation of thousands of trafficked workers.
The FBI also said the campaign alerted more than 10,000 Americans that they could be targeted by fraud before they lost money, helping avert an estimated $670 million in financial losses.
Many of the victims are senior citizens, Patel previously told News Outlet. Criminal networks have begun a geographic shift in an effort to broaden their scams, Patel has said.
BURMA APPROVES DEATH PENALTY FOR SCAMMERS MONTHS AFTER FBI’S $8 BILLION CRYPTO CRACKDOWN
In September, a Justice Department Scam Center Strike Force team helped authorities in Madagascar take down 13 scam centers operated by Chinese organized crime syndicates and process more than 3,200 electronic devices, News Outlet previously reported.
Criminal networks have now begun using artificial intelligence to further their scams, experts said.
The technology gives scammers the ability to use voice cloning and send flawless emails and messages to potential victims, eliminating the language barriers that once made scams easy to spot.
“AI gives scam fighters powerful new tools,” said Jack Stubbs, the lead scams investigator at OpenAI. “At OpenAI, we’re using AI to disrupt scam operations and help people spot scams. By sharing insights responsibly with industry and law enforcement partners, we can identify scam networks across platforms and build stronger collective defenses.”
