The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced the arrest of 28 people in Nigeria and Ghana over alleged online scams targeting hundreds of Americans.
The operation involved international law enforcement agencies and private-sector partners, with authorities disrupting schemes ranging from cryptocurrency investment fraud to impersonation scams. Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, announced the arrests on Tuesday, describing the criminal networks as increasingly sophisticated and organised.
“These criminal operations are increasingly sophisticated, organized and linked to human trafficking,” Pirro said during a media call.
She added that authorities used real-time intelligence and cooperation with international partners and private companies to identify suspects and disrupt their activities. The DOJ said the alleged schemes included fraudsters posing as law enforcement officers, cryptocurrency investment scams, online extortion and other forms of digital deception.
Ghana Operation Uncovers Human Trafficking Victims
In Ghana, authorities arrested 19 people and seized 303 electronic devices during an operation linked to a scam that allegedly defrauded 89 victims of $8.3 million. The DOJ also said investigators identified 117 suspected victims of human trafficking who are awaiting repatriation to Nigeria.
According to the FBI, the alleged schemes involved fake employment offers, military impersonation and romance scams, including schemes that targeted elderly Americans. The department said the operation also disrupted digital “arrest” extortion schemes in which fraudsters allegedly threatened victims with arrest unless they paid money.
Rob Cochran, Meta’s director of intelligence, safety and signals, said the company had removed 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram linked to scammers. The DOJ further announced that it had frozen $11 million in assets allegedly connected to the suspects. Authorities said the intervention could also help protect people believed to have been trafficked by the criminal networks.
Online Fraud Losses Continue to Rise
Data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) highlights the scale of the problem. The agency recorded 72,984 reports of investment scams in 2025, with cryptocurrency investment fraud accounting for 72 per cent of those complaints.
Reported losses from investment scams increased from $3.96 billion in 2023 to $5.8 billion in 2024. The FBI also reported that losses associated with cryptocurrency investment scams rose by 24 per cent in 2025, exceeding $7.2 billion. Authorities caution that the figures are based largely on victim reports and may substantially understate the true scale of the losses because many victims never report the crimes.
Pirro said international cooperation and partnerships with technology companies would remain essential to tackling the networks, which exploit digital platforms and national borders to reach victims.
