Joint security operation between Ghanaian security agencies and international partners has led to the rescue of 117 victims of human trafficking and the rescue of 19 persons in connection with international criminal scam operations in Accra.
The operation, which took place in Sasaabi, a suburb of Accra, also led to the seizure of 303 electronic devices, the identification of an additional 89 victims of the scam operations who suffered estimated losses of $8.3 million, and the removal of more than 3.7 million accounts used by fraudsters.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the United States Department of Justice last Tuesday describing it as a “Joint Disruption Week”, the effort that led to the largest-ever takedown of fraudulent social media accounts linked to scam centres.
According to the statement, the Ghana operation was led by the Ghana Cyber Security Authority, the Ghana Police Service Criminal Investigation Department 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 (EFCC).
The statement also indicated that, during the last week of September alone, authorities made scores of arrests at six locations in Ghana, identified 34 trafficking victims and seized 129 electronic devices.
The crackdown, it added, formed part of a broader consortium operation by international law enforcement agencies which made 28 arrests of individuals tied to criminal scam operations, including nine arrests in Nigeria during the enforcement period, with 53 electronic devices seized there.
The disrupted schemes included law enforcement impersonation scams, digital “arrest” extortion schemes, cryptocurrency investment fraud, also known as “pig butchering,” and a variety of other online fraud operations targeting global victims.
It added that the criminal scam centres operating in West Africa mirrored those uncovered in Southeast Asia’s highly organised enterprises that recruit workers, train them in social engineering and deploy multi-platform fraud campaigns targeting global victims.
Details of operation
The US Department of Justice revealed that during the week beginning October 6, investigators and industry partners exchanged real-time intelligence across jurisdictions, enabling rapid identification and disruption of scam centres in Nigeria, Ghana and other African countries.
Many of the targeted operations, it said, were tied to schemes victimising individuals in the US, UK and other countries around the world.
It said several private industry partners, including “Meta, Adobe, Binance, Coinbase, Cyjax, Elliptic, Chainalysis, Flashpoint, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Silent Push, Starlink and TRM Labs” collaborated with international law enforcement in the event, and voluntarily took action on their own networks to disrupt scammers using their platforms to perpetrate fraud.
These companies reported to the Department that they “removed more than 3.7 million accounts, Pages and Groups targeting people in the US, UK and beyond, and shared leads on over 30 suspected scam centres with law enforcement, resulting in dozens of arrests, the rescue of trafficking victims, and cryptocurrency seizures.
In total, over $11 million dollars in potential freezable funds were identified by the private sector partners.
Background
President Donald Trump’s Executive Order, signed on March 6 this year, directs prioritisation of cybercrime, fraud and predatory schemes draining American families of their life savings, unleashing every available tool to stop foreign-backed criminal networks that exploit Americans through cyber-enabled fraud.
The Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, through its Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative (CSI), the Scam Centre Strike Force launched in November last year, and the Homeland Security Task Force National Coordination Centre were critical in executing the mission.
