NCA-led sting arrests nearly 30 West African 'romance scammers' who targeted lonely British pensioners
Men with obscured faces at laptops inside a suspected scam compound in Ghana's Sasaabi area, where 19 people were arrested and 303 devices seized during Operation Blackout.
British and American law enforcement raided scam compounds in Ghana and Nigeria last week, arresting 28 suspects and freeing more than 120 trafficked workers forced to run the fraud operations. Meta pulled down 3.7 million Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to the networks, while investigators identified over $11 million in potentially freezable funds. The NCA's Nick Sharp warned that investment fraud targeting British victims originates "primarily from overseas and West Africa", with romance scams used to lure victims before fleecing them on fake investments.
In Ghana's Sasaabi district, 19 people were arrested and 303 devices seized, with 117 trafficking victims found awaiting repatriation to Nigeria.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Operation Blackout has overall netted roughly $17 billion in seized assets and warned fraudsters: 'Your borders won't protect you.'
AI is now being weaponised by the scam networks to clone victims' voices and craft convincing fake messages, OpenAI's lead scams investigator Jack Stubbs told reporters.
