By James Amoh Junior, GNA
Accra, Oct. 14, GNA – Ghanaian authorities have arrested 19 people in Sasaabi, a suburb of Accra, in an international cybercrime operation that identified 89 victims of online scams who lost an estimated US$8.3 million.
The operation also led to the seizure of 303 electronic devices and the identification of 117 suspected human trafficking victims awaiting repatriation to Nigeria.
The arrests formed part of an international “Joint Disruption Week” involving law enforcement agencies and technology companies to dismantle transnational criminal networks operating across West Africa.
A statement published on the United States Department of Justice website on Tuesday said the coordinated operation resulted in 28 arrests in Ghana and Nigeria, the removal of more than 3.7 million fraudulent social media accounts, pages and groups, and the identification of more than US$11 million in potentially freezable funds.
In Ghana, the operation was led by the Cyber Security Authority (CSA), the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and the National Security Service, with support from the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The exercise, hosted by the NCA in London, brought together agencies from the United States, United Kingdom, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand, alongside INTERPOL and private technology companies.
During the week beginning October 6, investigators and industry partners exchanged real-time intelligence to identify and disrupt suspected scam centres in Ghana, Nigeria and other African countries. Many of the operations targeted networks defrauding victims in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
Participating technology companies included Meta, Google, Microsoft, Adobe, OpenAI, Binance, Coinbase, Chainalysis, Elliptic, Flashpoint, Cyjax, Silent Push, Starlink and TRM Labs.
The companies voluntarily removed fraudulent content and accounts from their platforms and shared intelligence with law enforcement agencies, providing leads on more than 30 suspected scam centres.
The latest operation followed raids at six locations in Ghana during the last week of September, when authorities arrested scores of people, identified 34 trafficking victims and seized 129 electronic devices.
In Nigeria, authorities arrested nine people and seized 53 electronic devices during the latest enforcement period.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the US Department of Justice’s Criminal Division said the arrests and disruption of fraudulent accounts demonstrated the importance of international cooperation in tackling online fraud.
“Criminals beware: Law enforcement from around the world are working together, and with private industry, to find you, stop your schemes, and bring you to justice,” he said.
Mr Duva said the department’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative was established to strengthen collaboration between law enforcement agencies and private sector partners.
He thanked the NCA and its Director General, Graeme Biggar, for hosting the exercise, and commended officers in Ghana and Nigeria for their role in securing evidence and arresting suspects.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the operation had helped investigators disrupt criminal activities, seize devices, identify potentially recoverable funds and rescue people from trafficking situations.
“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,” he said.
Nick Sharp, Deputy Director of Fraud at the NCA, said international cooperation was essential because online fraudsters could operate in one country while targeting victims in several others.
“Fraud is a global problem and it takes partnership working across international boundaries to tackle it,” he said, adding that the NCA would continue working with international and private sector partners to pursue fraudsters and disrupt their operations.
The scams targeted by investigators included impersonation of law enforcement officers, digital extortion involving threats of arrest and cryptocurrency investment fraud.
One common cryptocurrency scam, known as “pig butchering”, involves criminals building relationships with victims before persuading them to invest in fraudulent platforms or schemes.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recorded 72,984 reports of investment scams in 2025, with cryptocurrency investment fraud accounting for 72 per cent of the category.
Reported losses from investment scams rose from US$3.96 billion in 2023 to US$5.8 billion in 2024. Losses from cryptocurrency investment scams increased by 24 per cent in 2025 to more than US$7.2 billion.
The figures are based largely on victim reports and are believed to underestimate the actual scale of the problem because many victims do not report fraud.
The US Department of Justice cited a government estimate that funds stolen by scam syndicates worldwide approached US$64 billion annually by the end of 2023.
The department said scam centres in West Africa shared characteristics with those uncovered in Southeast Asia, operating as organised enterprises that recruited and trained workers in social engineering before deploying them in coordinated fraud schemes.
The FBI, the Scam Center Strike Force and their international partners said they would continue expanding public-private cooperation to dismantle criminal networks responsible for online scams.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe
Reporter: James Amoh Junior
Email: [email protected]
