Interpol Conducted Operation First Light 2022 and Arrested 2,000 Cyber Scammers

Daniel ZimmermannJune 17, 2022

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Interpol officials said that as part of Operation First Light 2022, about 2,000 people that are associated with various social engineering schemes were arrested.

Law enforcement agencies of 76 countries of the world were involved in the operation, including China, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and Portugal. It should be noted that this is an annual operation conducted since 2014.

Let me remind you that we also wrote that 33 BEC Black Ax fraudsters that stole more than $ 17 million arrested in the US, and also that In the international operation law enforcement officers closed DeepDotWeb that is one of the main DarkNet portals.

This time the operation was carried out from March 8 to May 8 this year and focused on social engineering, including phone fraud, “romantic” scam and BEC fraud, which are closely related to financial crimes and money laundering.

Law enforcers say that as a result of the operation, more than 1,700 searches were carried out, about 3,000 suspects were identified, about 2,000 operators, fraudsters and money launderers were arrested, 4,000 bank accounts were frozen, and illegal funds worth about $ 50 million were intercepted and confiscated. USA.

First Light 2022
Confiscated funds in the Portuguese police

Interpol reports on the most “bright” moments of First Light 2022. For example, a Chinese citizen who deceived 24,000 people for a total of $35,700,000 was detained. A fake kidnapping case was also uncovered, where a ransom of $1,575,000 was demanded from the parents of the “victim”.

The Interpol report also explains a Ponzi scheme scam disguised as job offers in the e-commerce field that allegedly promises participation in a lucrative online business.

As part of Operation First Light 2022, the Singapore Police Force arrested eight suspects in Ponzi employment fraud. Through social networks and instant messengers, the scammers offered high-paying jobs in the field of online marketing, where the victims would first receive a small income, and then they would have to attract more participants, earning commissions from this.law enforcement officers write.

In addition, there has been a marked increase in human trafficking on social media, where victims are lured into lucrative job offers and then involved into forced labour, sexual slavery, captivity, casinos or fishing boats.

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