Ghanaian and US authorities have arrested scores of internet fraudsters accused of netting more than $10 million in scams, the FBI said Thursday, the latest in an operation targeting “scam compounds”.
Fraudsters operating in huge teams out of houses or apartment complexes usually target people around the world.
“Another takedown this week out of Ghana,” FBI director Kash Patel announced on social media, posting a photo of US agents alongside Ghanaian authorities.
Patel said that 130 people were arrested, including people who had been trafficked and forced to work in the compound, over scams targeting 89 people.
Neither the victims’ nor the alleged perpetrator’s nationalities were specified.
‘Operation Blackout’
The raid was the latest in the FBI’s “Operation Blackout”, which focuses on internet scam rings.
“These scam compounds target American citizens and destroy lives,” Patel said.
Patel said the Operation Blackout had so far seized $17 billion worldwide and warned more than 10,000 Americans at risk of being scammed.
In February, Interpol announced that police in 16 African countries had arrested 651 people in an eight week operation that targeted investment scams, mobile money fraud and fraudulent mobile loan applications.
Most of the victims were African.
