Over 20,000 People Arrested Globally By Police Over Internet Fraud

The International Police (Interpol) disclosed that over 20,000 individuals have been arrested in its clampdown on internet and telephone fraudsters on every continent.

It disclosed that it had conducted over 10,000 raids and recovered about $154 million of illegal money, in collaboration with 35 countries since the year 2019.

Interpol said that the coordination of its agents and security agencies in each of the 35 countries was “the first time law enforcement has cooperated with Interpol on a global scale to combat telecoms fraud, with operations taking place on every continent.”

Since September and November of 2019, the organisation issued "Purple Notices", alerting security agencies of the various modes employed in “telephone scams, investment fraud and fraud schemes taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic”.

It added that the coordination “underscored the transnational nature of many telephone and online scams, where perpetrators often operate from a different country or even continent than their victims.”

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The organisation detailed instances where unsuspecting victims are swindled by fraudsters, it stated the use of “business e-mail compromise, romance scams and ‘smishing’.”

Interpol explained that “the money extracted from victims is also likely to involve multiple countries as criminals use overseas bank accounts or money mules to launder their funds.”