More than 20,000 people have been arrested in recent months worldwide in an operation coordinated by Interpol to fight scams over the phone and the Internet.
The large-scale operation, codenamed “First Light,” ended in November and resulted in arrests of 21,549 operators, fraudsters and money launderers in more than 10,000 raids, as well as the seizure of almost US$154 million of “illicit funds,” according to an Interpol’s press release.
The France-based International Criminal Police Organization said that since September 2019, 35 countries have participated in the operation, which marks the first time law enforcement has coordinated with Interpol on a global scale to fight telecoms fraud, with operations taking place on every continent.
Following an “enforcement phase” in September-November last year, Interpol issued three so-called “Purple Notices” detailing techniques and equipment used in “telephone scams, investment fraud and fraud schemes taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
“Other types of fraud exposed in the operation include business e-mail compromise, romance scams and ‘smishing’, where standard messaging service (SMS) messages are sent to coerce a victim to divulge personal information that can subsequently be fraudulently used,” Interpol said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has seen telecommunications and social engineering frauds multiply. Operation First Light has achieved remarkable success in the past year yet, going forward, a much broader global coalition of law enforcement – facilitated by Interpol – will be needed to combat these threats.”