Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,
More than 1 million scam-related online accounts were taken down, and millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency were frozen, as part of a crackdown on Southeast Asian scam networks.
The crackdown operations, conducted by U.S. and international agencies led by the Department of Justice (DOJ), began on May 18, when the DOJ’s Scam Center Strike Force brought together the FBI, Royal Thai Police, and law enforcement agencies from Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand to identify and disrupt criminal scam networks.
Meta, Microsoft, Starlink, and Coinbase were part of joint operations held in Washington and Bangkok, Meta said in a June 3 statement.
“More than a million online assets were disrupted as a result of the operation – including 1.4 million accounts, pages, and groups across Facebook and Instagram, 20,000 Microsoft accounts, and thousands of Starlink kits – and the Royal Thai Police has arrested 63 individuals involved in scam operations,” Meta said.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase “froze more than $3 million in cryptocurrency assets tied to criminal networks.” In addition, Starlink “terminated connectivity for thousands of Starlink kits that were attributed to unlawful use,” it said.
Criminal syndicates behind the fraud have exploited millions of people globally via romance scams and investment fraud, and through utilizing forced labor. This makes coordinated disruption critical to protecting people, Meta said.
FBI Director Kash Patel thanked Meta for the company’s assistance in a June 3 post on X, and said the operation was “just the beginning!”
The DOJ said that the joint initiative interrupted malicious network connections hosted by scammers. Moreover, servers and hosting infrastructure associated with the scam networks in Southeast Asia were decommissioned.
Many scam centers are run from Laos, Cambodia, and Burma along the border with Thailand, across several industrial-scale compounds.
As for forced labor, criminal networks lure unsuspecting people to Thailand with promises of high-paying jobs, then seize their identification and coerce them to work at such sites. The victims run scams against targets under the threat of violence.
In its recent statement, Meta said that intelligence-sharing among entities has led to the identification of several potential new scam center locations and networks.
“Blockchain technology is one of the most powerful tools we have in the fight against financial crime,” Leah Bressack, vice president at Coinbase, said.
“Unlike traditional financial systems, the transparent and immutable nature of transaction data means bad actors can’t hide – every transaction leaves a trail. That transparency is exactly what allowed us to work with law enforcement to trace, freeze, and disrupt these criminal networks.”
Crackdown On Fraud
The crackdown follows President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order on March 6 to counter scam operations – Combating Cybercrime, Fraud, and Predatory Schemes Against American Citizens.
“Cybercrime, fraud, and predatory schemes are draining American families of their life savings, stealing the benefits of years of work, and destroying the lives of our youth,” Trump said in the order.
“It is the policy of the United States to protect Americans from, and harden our financial and digital systems against, these threats. The United States shall counter attacks on Americans with a commensurate response that includes law enforcement, diplomacy, and potential offensive actions.”
According to the recent DOJ statement, the Scam Center Strike Force is a “critical node” in executing Trump’s order.
Online scams pose a major financial threat to Americans. An April 2025 report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center revealed that the center received 859,532 complaints of suspected internet crimes in 2024.
The total financial losses from these crimes amounted to $16 billion, a 33 percent increase from the previous year.
Older adults were significantly affected, with 147,127 complaints filed by people aged 60 or older, totaling $4.88 billion in losses.
