International anti-fraud crackdown recovers more than $400 million, Interpol says

The latest Interpol-led operation against online scams recovered $439 million worth of assets this summer, the agency announced Wednesday.

Authorities from more than 40 countries and territories blocked 68,000 bank accounts and froze about 400 cryptocurrency wallets as part of the operation from April through August, Interpol said. 

The targeted scams included “voice phishing, romance scams, online sextortion, investment fraud, money laundering associated with illegal online gambling, business email compromise and e-commerce fraud,” Interpol said.

The recovered assets included $342 million in traditional currencies and $97 million worth of “physical and digital” items, the agency said.

It was the sixth phase of an international law enforcement collaboration labeled HAECHI and financially supported by South Korea. The previous crackdown, ending in November 2024, made similar financial recoveries and also included 5,500 arrests, Interpol said at the time.

Interpol did not specify how many arrests were made overall in the latest operation, but noted that authorities in Portugal detained 45 people while taking down “a sprawling syndicate involving several interconnected groups that had been diverting funds meant to support vulnerable families.”

The Royal Thai Police seized $6.6 million in a single case, Interpol said, the largest in that country to date. 

“The case involved a sophisticated business email compromise scam perpetrated by a transnational organized crime group comprising Thai and West African nationals,” the agency said. “The gang deceived a major Japanese corporation into transferring funds to a fictitious business partner based in Bangkok.”

South Korean national police also worked with United Arab Emirates authorities to recover about $3.9 million in Korean won that was sent to “an illegitimate bank account in Dubai after a Korean steel company noticed that shipping documents had been forged,” Interpol said.

The results of previous HAECHI operations were announced in December 2023, November 2022, November 2021 and May 2021.

Romance scams, investment fraud and other “cyber-enabled” crimes often originate in Southeast Asian compounds run by organized crime groups that staff them through kidnapping and human trafficking. The international pressure against the illicit industry includes sanctions, nongovernmental investigations and direct raids by law enforcement on the facilities.