Meta has removed more than 3.7 million accounts, Pages and Groups on Facebook and Instagram linked to scam networks in West Africa. Most of them impersonated people from the US and UK and targeted users in those countries. The takedowns were part of the largest international operation against scammers to date, involving law enforcement agencies and 15 tech companies.
What the operation was
The joint disruption week took place from October 6 to 9, 2026 in London, at the headquarters of the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA). It was run together with the US Department of Justice and the FBI. It's the first coordinated operation aimed specifically at West African scam networks, primarily in Nigeria and Ghana.
Besides Meta, it involved Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Coinbase, Binance, Starlink, Adobe, Chainalysis, TRM Labs, Silent Push and other companies, plus law enforcement from the US, UK, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India and INTERPOL.
Key numbers
- 3.7M+ accounts, Pages and Groups removed by Meta.
- 28 arrests: 19 in a suburb of Accra, Ghana, and 9 in Nigeria. Hundreds of phones, laptops and routers seized.
- 117 trafficking victims found in a scam compound in Ghana, where people were held and forced to commit fraud.
- $11M+ in potentially freezable funds identified by private companies.
- 30+ suspected scam centers referred to police by Meta.
- According to the NCA, 490+ ad accounts, 490+ Facebook accounts and 380+ scam domains were disabled. Another 1,110+ Facebook and Instagram accounts were blocked based on data from the UK's Report Fraud service.
- Silent Push mapped more than 35,000 malicious domains and nearly 700 scammer communication channels.
How the scammers made money
- fake investments, including crypto;
- fake jobs and paid "tasks";
- impersonating police and military;
- selling goods that never ship;
- romance scams;
- "recovery" scams targeting people who had already been defrauded.
This isn't the first such operation. In June 2026, Meta and its partners ran a similar crackdown on scam networks in Southeast Asia.
What it means for affiliate marketers
The operation doesn't directly affect white-hat media buyers, but the trend matters. Platforms and law enforcement are working more closely and sharing data: ad accounts and domains were disabled based on tips from police and other companies.
- Moderation in risky verticals will get stricter. Investments, crypto, jobs and dating targeting the US and UK are exactly the topics this operation went after.
- Impersonating others is a direct path to a ban. Meta specifically notes that scammers posed as Americans and Brits. Fake identities, stolen photos and made-up testimonials are exactly what the systems look for first.
- Links between accounts and domains are tracked. If one domain or account ends up in a fraud database, everything connected to it is at risk.
If you run white campaigns, this is mostly good news: the less scam on the platform, the more users trust ads and the cheaper honest traffic gets. But it's worth preparing in advance for account and creative reviews in these verticals.