Meta removes 3.7million accounts in global crackdown on scam networks in Ghana & Nigeria
Meta, in collaboration with international law enforcement, dismantled a massive scam network based in West Africa that targeted users in the US and UK. The operation resulted in millions of account removals and the rescue of 117 human trafficking victims.
Why it matters
This highlights the effectiveness of public-private partnerships in combating large-scale cybercrime and human rights abuses.
Meta and fourteen other leading technology companies have joined law enforcement counterparts from ten countries to disrupt criminal scam networks operating in West Africa, in the largest operation of its kind to date.
As part of the operation, Meta, in a statement, said it removed more than 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram that were based in West Africa. A majority of these 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.
The operation, hosted by the National Crime Agency in London in partnership with the US Department of Justice, the FBI and several US federal agencies, marked the first joint disruption to broadly target criminal scam networks in the West African region.
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