Joint Disruption Week: Global Crackdown on West African Scam Networks Leads to 28 Arrests

The US Justice Department announced that an international operation called "Joint Disruption Week" targeted online scammers based in West Africa. It resulted in 28 arrests, 117 trafficking victims rescued and hundreds of electronic devices seized. Authorities also identified more than $11 million in funds that could be frozen. Participants described it as the largest joint scam operation to date, and the first to focus on West Africa.

The scams involved included law enforcement impersonation, digital arrest extortion schemes, pig butchering and other online fraud aimed at victims around the world. The operation was hosted in London and involved the FBI, the Secret Service, the UK's National Crime Agency, INTERPOL, and Nigerian and Ghanaian authorities. Agencies from Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand also took part.

Private companies played a significant role, including Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Coinbase, Binance and Chainalysis. Meta said it removed more than 3.7 million accounts, groups and pages on Facebook and Instagram based in West Africa, most of which targeted people in the United States and United Kingdom. Kelly Milliron of the Justice Department said collaborations like this give authorities "a consolidated approach" to a problem that once seemed impossible to tackle.