5,811 arrests, $293 million seized over social engineering scams
Criminals who pose as police officers, romantic partners, and business suppliers have built fraud operations that reach across continents. A four-month enforcement campaign against these schemes wrapped up, and police in 97 countries and territories took part.
Thousands of arrests
The campaign, called Operation First Light 2026, centered on social engineering scams and the money laundering that moves their proceeds. Arrests reached 5,811.
Investigators intercepted $293 million in illicit assets. Blocking those funds relied in part on INTERPOL’s Global Rapid Intervention of Payments, a stop-payment system that freezes suspicious transfers of traditional currency and virtual assets before they settle.
Investigators worked through roughly 150,000 cases during the operation. They froze 31,014 bank accounts tied to suspected fraud and flagged thousands more suspects for follow-up.
“Social engineering scams continue to pose a significant threat to our society. Criminal syndicates exploit human psychology to manipulate their targets, and no nation can stay safe unless all countries are equipped and committed to jointly fighting back. INTERPOL is dedicated to supporting member countries in building a comprehensive, coordinated strategy to tackle cyber-enabled financial crimes, organized criminal networks and the money laundering that fuels them,” said Tomonobu Kaya, Director of the INTERPOL Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre.
Cases from five countries
In Eswatini, police arrested 82 people and broke up a network running illegal online gambling, money laundering, and impersonation scams. Officers seized more than 200 electronic devices, foreign currency, and a lifelike replica of a Brazilian police station, complete with fake uniforms and signage. The crew ran video calls posing as Brazil’s Federal Police, convincing targets they were crime victims and getting them to transfer funds for “safekeeping,” which then vanished.
Thai police made a pair of arrests and uncovered a laundering scheme that pushed romance-scam proceeds through cryptocurrencies, using cross-chain token swaps to hide the trail. The digital wallet of one suspect had moved more than $122.5 million in about 10 months.
Authorities in Singapore and Oman used I-GRIP to stop a $6.6 million transfer linked to a business email compromise scam, after criminals impersonated a supplier to a Singapore commodity trading firm.
Community outreach in Macao, China surfaced a member of the public who was being worked by a syndicate posing as government officials. Police stepped in before the victim wired close to $372,000 to the fraudsters.
Palau deported 22 individuals connected to a pair of scam centres run out of hotels, where operators used cryptocurrency and illegal gambling sites to reach victims abroad.