For years, a fake profile with a stolen American or British face has been one of the most familiar tools of online fraud. This week, the companies that run those platforms said they had removed millions of them in one go, and traced many back to West Africa.
Meta announced on October 13, 2026 that it had taken down more than 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups on Facebook and Instagram linked to scam networks based in West Africa. The removals were part of a joint operation with 14 other tech companies and law enforcement agencies from ten countries, including Nigeria and Ghana.
Meta describes it as the largest operation of its kind so far and the first joint disruption aimed at scam centres in the region. The figures have been reported by Technext, Arise News, Legit.ng and international security outlets.
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3.7 million accounts, pages and groups removed. Leads shared on more than 30 scam centres. 28 people arrested. Most of the fake profiles targeted people in the US and the UK.
How the Operation Worked
The operation began on October 6 and was hosted in London by the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), with the FBI, the US Department of Justice and other US agencies taking part. Law enforcement from Nigeria, Ghana, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India also joined.
On the tech side, Meta says the group included Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Coinbase, Starlink and Adobe, with blockchain analysts Chainalysis and TRM Labs and threat intelligence firm Silent Push also involved. Each company brought a different piece of the puzzle.
Coinbase says it identified more than 65 people who were actively being scammed and stopped more than $415,000 in potential losses. Silent Push says it mapped more than 35,000 malicious web domains and nearly 700 communication channels used by the networks.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the operation identified at least $11 million in funds that could potentially be frozen, and that hundreds of devices were seized across several African countries, according to Meta's announcement.
"Scams are a global threat that demand a global response," said Chris Sonderby of Meta.
Who the Scammers Targeted
Most of the removed accounts pretended to be Americans or Britons and aimed at victims in the US and UK. Meta says the networks also reached people in Germany, Brazil, Japan, India, South Africa and Nigeria itself.
The scams covered most of the playbook internet users now know too well: fake investment schemes, romance scams, fake job and "task" offers, people posing as police or soldiers, goods that never arrive and so-called recovery services that promise to get stolen money back for a fee.
Meta also says 117 people who had been forced to work in a scam compound in Ghana were rescued, and that their captors were arrested and face prosecution.
How West Africa Compares
The operation follows a similar push in Southeast Asia in June, when Meta disabled about 1.4 million accounts and Thai police arrested 63 people. As Technext points out, the West Africa operation removed about two and a half times more accounts but led to fewer arrests. Meta's explanation is that West African scam centres tend to be smaller and more spread out than the industrial compounds seen in Asia.
There is also a gap in the public detail. Meta has not said how many of the 3.7 million accounts, or how many of the 28 arrests, were in Nigeria, and it has not named the Nigerian agency involved. Earlier this year, Meta and the NCA worked with the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre on a raid on a suspected scam centre in Agbor, Delta State, Technext reports.
Coinbase's Leah Bressack also warned that criminal networks pushed out of Southeast Asia are trying to set up again in Africa, which suggests this will not be the last operation of its kind.
What This Means for Africa's Tech Users
For honest Nigerian and Ghanaian internet users, this story cuts two ways. Removing millions of fake accounts makes Facebook and Instagram safer for everyone, including the many Nigerians who are themselves targets of fake job offers and investment schemes.
But scam networks also carry a cost for people who have nothing to do with them. African freelancers, sellers and founders already face extra checks from payment platforms, marketplaces and foreign clients because of the region's reputation for online fraud. Large, visible enforcement backed by local police is one of the few things that can slowly change that picture.
For readers, the advice is simple. Treat any unexpected job offer, investment tip or romantic contact that quickly turns to money as a red flag. Never pay anyone who promises to recover lost funds, and report suspicious profiles inside the app so they feed into the same systems that powered this crackdown.
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The takeaway: Big Tech and police from ten countries just removed 3.7 million scam accounts tied to West Africa. The bigger test is whether the region can keep the networks from coming back.
