Meta Deletes 3.7 Million Accounts in West Africa Fraud Crackdown

Meta has removed more than 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram as part of an international crackdown on suspected online scam networks operating in West Africa, with authorities confirming 28 arrests and the rescue of 117 people allegedly trafficked into scam compounds in Ghana.

The results, announced on October 13, followed a coordinated operation involving Meta and 14 other technology companies, alongside law enforcement agencies from 10 countries. The campaign targeted criminal networks operating in Nigeria, Ghana and other parts of the region that allegedly used social media and other digital services to defraud people around the world.

According to Meta, most of the removed accounts, pages and groups appeared to target people in the United States and the United Kingdom. Some reportedly used profiles impersonating American and British users to build trust with potential victims before steering them towards fraudulent investments, fake employment opportunities or other scams.

The operation, known as Joint Disruption Week, began on October 6 and was coordinated through the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, working with the US Department of Justice, the FBI and other agencies. Nigerian and Ghanaian law enforcement officials also participated, alongside technology and financial intelligence companies including Google, Microsoft, Coinbase, OpenAI and others.

The enforcement actions extended beyond social media. Authorities reported 19 arrests in Ghana and nine in Nigeria, bringing the total to 28. In Ghana, investigators seized 303 electronic devices at a suspected scam centre in Sasaabi, near Accra, and identified 117 people who authorities said had been trafficked and forced to work in scam operations. In Nigeria, 53 electronic devices were seized during enforcement activities.

The findings also point to the financial scale of the suspected schemes. US authorities said investigators and private-sector partners identified more than $11 million in funds that could potentially be frozen. That amount should not be confused with money already recovered. Coinbase separately reported identifying more than 65 active scam victims and preventing over $415,000 in potential losses.

The fraud schemes identified included fake cryptocurrency investments, romance scams, fraudulent job and online-task offers, impersonation of police or military personnel, and scams promising to recover money lost in earlier frauds. In some cases, criminals allegedly established personal or professional relationships with victims before asking them to transfer funds. Others used fabricated official identities or threats to pressure people into paying.

The trafficking findings add another dimension to the operation. Meta said the 117 people identified in Ghana had been held against their will and subjected to malnutrition and physical and psychological abuse. The company said people responsible for the compound had been arrested and were facing prosecution. The cases underline why authorities must distinguish between people running criminal schemes and individuals who may have been coerced into participating in them.

Meta described the operation as the first joint effort to broadly target scam centres across West Africa, while the US Justice Department called it a major disruption of transnational criminal networks. These are official characterizations of the campaign’s impact; the arrests and platform removals do not mean every suspected network has been dismantled or that every removed account has been proven in court to have committed a crime.

The wider significance is the growing recognition that online fraud cannot be addressed by deleting accounts alone. Criminal networks can rebuild profiles, shift platforms and move money across borders, while victims may live thousands of kilometres from the people targeting them. Sustained cooperation between African law enforcement agencies, international investigators, technology companies and financial institutions will be essential to turn this large-scale disruption into lasting accountability, and to protect both people defrauded online and those trafficked into the operations behind the scams.