DOJ eliminates 3.7 million fraudulent social media accounts, rescues more than 100 human trafficking victims in West Africa operation 

More than 3.7 million fraudulent social media accounts were taken down last week during “Joint Disruption Week” – the first-ever transnational effort to target scam centers in West Africa, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

“Transnational fraud demands a transnational response,” Scam Center Strike Force founder Jeanine Ferris Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a release.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Justice Department, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and other American agencies joined law enforcement groups from Nigeria, Ghana, Australia, India and other countries for the operation.

Scam centers in West African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana are similar to those in Southeast Asia, according to the release. Workers are recruited into highly organized enterprises and trained in social engineering before deploying fraud campaigns across several platforms to target victims worldwide.

Several major tech companies, including Meta, Google, Adobe, Starlink and Microsoft, partnered with law enforcement to take down more than 3.7 million social media accounts, groups and pages used to defraud victims in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

The investigation’s private-sector partners identified more than $11 million in potential fraud, along with leads to more than 30 suspected scam centers.

“Thanks to brilliant partnership with the Department of Justice and the private sector, across multiple African countries, we arrested dozens of criminal actors, seized hundreds of devices, identified at least $11 million in potentially freezable funds and truly saved lives,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “This is what happens when law enforcement executes with precision across the interagency. We are demolishing Scam Centers across the globe and crushing a criminal industry preying on American citizens.”

More than 100 human trafficking victims were rescued during the operation, and 28 people were arrested for their involvement in criminal scam operations.

In Ghana, 19 people were arrested, and 117 human trafficking victims were identified and are now awaiting repatriation to Nigeria. Authorities also seized 303 electronic devices and identified 89 scam victims who suffered estimated losses of $8.3 million.

In Nigeria, nine people were arrested, and 53 electronic devices were seized.

Impersonation scams, digital “arrest” scams in which fraudsters impersonate law enforcement officers and threaten victims with arrest, cryptocurrency investment fraud, also known as “pig butchering,” and several other types of online fraud operations were disrupted during the operation.

“Fraud is a global problem and it takes partnership working across international boundaries to tackle it,” Nick Sharp, the deputy director of fraud at the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which hosted the operation, said. “Collaborating in this way sends a clear signal to criminals that the combined capabilities of law enforcement and industry means that we will relentlessly pursue them and the infrastructure they rely on no matter where they operate.”

The Trump administration’s war on fraud

Fraud continues to be an issue in the United States, as scam losses rose from $3.96 billion in 2023 to more than $7.2 billion in 2025, according to the release.

“To put this crisis into perspective, more taxpayer dollars go to fraudsters every year than to most federal departments and agencies, including the combined budgets of the Departments of Energy, Justice and Interior,” Assistant Attorney General for National Fraud Enforcement Colin McDonald said at a press conference Wednesday regarding tax fraud.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March directing the administration to use every available tool to combat cybercrime and fraud schemes. He also established the Fraud Task Force later that month, which Vice President JD Vance chairs.

Vance called for public officials to pledge to protect Americans from fraudsters Thursday, with 19 days until the midterm elections.

“I’m calling on every member of Congress as well as local and statewide officials and anyone seeking public office to rise to the occasion and make a simple commitment.”

(Images: Courtesy, U.S. Department of Justice)