Interpol seizes $50M in social engineering scam crackdown

Interpol was able to grab $50 million in stolen funds as it took down over 1,770 call centers involved in phone and email scams, as well as arrested 2,000 suspected fraudsters and money launderers as part of its global crackdown on social engineering scams, according to CyberScoop. Eight suspects linked to an online marking job scam have also been apprehended in Operation First Light 2022, which involved 76 countries and spanned from March to May of this year. Operation First Light 2022 also resulted in the arrest of individuals suspected to be involved in business email compromise scams, which have emerged as one of the costliest scams. "The transnational and digital nature of different types of telecom and social engineering fraud continues to present grave challenges for local police authorities, because perpetrators operate from a different country or even continent than their victims and keep updating their fraud schemes," said Interpol Beijing National Central Bureau Head Duan Daqi.