Meta, DOJ, and Partners Bust Southeast Asian Scam Networks

Meta worked with the DOJ, along with Microsoft, Coinbase, Starlink and international law enforcement agencies to bust online scams and identify the criminal syndicates behind them. The company has been getting a lot of flak for letting scammers run rampant on its platforms and then reportedly making billions of dollars yearly from ad marketing scams. This particular operation focuses on criminal networks operating out of Southeast Asia, which target Americans with romance scams, "pig butchering" schemes and law enforcement impersonation. They also offer fake jobs to fellow Southeast Asians, who find themselves forced to work in scam compounds.

Throughout the week that started on May 18, Meta, along with Microsoft, Coinbase, Starlink, the Justice Department, the Royal Thai Police and other law enforcement partners from the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, met in Washington, DC, to share insights. That helped them "connect the dots between disparate pieces of information across platforms." Meta says it was the first of its kind to include cooperation between companies across the industry.

Thanks to this operation, Meta was able to identify and disable more than 1.4 million accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram. Microsoft suspended 20,000 accounts used by scammers, while Coinbase froze more than $3 million worth of cryptocurrency tied to criminal networks. Meanwhile, Starlink disconnected thousands of kits it determined were being used by scammers. By exchanging information, they were also able to identify additional potential scam center locations, and law enforcement agencies have arrested 63 suspects so far.

While they didn't reveal their next steps, Meta said the "participating companies remain committed to continuing this important collaboration to protect people online." Meta has been trying to fend off scammers for years and once took down more than 2 million accounts linked to pig butchering schemes, in which bad actors fool victims into making crypto investments (or similar schemes) before disappearing with their funds.