Key Takeaways
1. Meta removed over 150,000 accounts linked to criminal scam-center networks in Southeast Asia, marking a significant action against scams.
2. The scam centers targeted individuals in the U.S., U.K., and Asia, involving various fraudulent activities like romance scams and investment fraud.
3. This operation was a coordinated effort with law enforcement agencies, resulting in 21 arrests by the Royal Thai Police.
4. Meta’s recent push is part of a larger anti-scam initiative, including new alerts and notifications to protect users on its platforms.
5. In 2025, Meta removed over 159 million scam advertisements and 10.9 million accounts linked to scam centers, highlighting the ongoing issue of scams on social media.
Meta has announced a significant international operation that resulted in the removal of over 150,000 accounts linked to criminal scam-center networks in Southeast Asia. This effort is described as one of their most substantial recent actions against scams. In a statement from March, Meta revealed that this enforcement surge was a collaborative effort involving its investigators, the Royal Thai Police, the FBI, the US Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force, along with other law enforcement agencies.
Targeting Global Scams
The scam centers primarily focused on individuals in the United States, the United Kingdom, and various countries in Asia and the Pacific region. Meta pointed out that these networks were connected to extensive fraudulent activities, such as romance scams, investment and cryptocurrency fraud, deceptive job offers, and impersonation schemes aimed at pushing victims to private messaging platforms to steal their money.
Extensive Account Disabling
According to Meta, based on information provided by law enforcement, the company disabled over 150,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts that were either involved in or supporting the scam-center networks. Additionally, the Royal Thai Police Anti-Cyber Scam Center arrested 21 individuals as part of this larger operation.
Coordinated Efforts and Global Support
This March action was described as the second joint disruption week since December 2025. Meta noted that the previous operation led to the removal of around 59,000 accounts linked to similar scam-center activities, indicating that this latest effort was much larger. The company emphasizes that the collaborative enforcement work with governments and other companies is becoming increasingly aggressive and well-coordinated.
In this latest push, Meta also received support from agencies in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia. This is significant, as scam-center networks based in countries like Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar frequently operate cross-border, utilize trafficked labor, and target victims globally rather than just within one region.
Ongoing Anti-Scam Initiatives
Meta connected this enforcement action to a larger anti-scam initiative across its platforms. In a different post from March 2026, Meta stated that it had recently rolled out new alerts for suspicious friend requests on Facebook, enhanced scam notifications in Messenger, and warnings about device-linking on WhatsApp to make it more difficult for scammers to take over accounts or pressure users into risky actions.
Shedding Light on the Problem
Meta also used this announcement to underscore the breadth of the scam issue on its platforms. The company reported that it removed over 159 million scam advertisements in 2025 and took down 10.9 million Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to criminal scam centers throughout that year.
According to Meta’s statistics, it is evident how pivotal major social media platforms remain in both the proliferation and disruption of scam-center fraud. The company is leveraging the takedown of 150,000 accounts to support the argument that coordinated action between platforms and law enforcement can significantly impact these networks, even as the overall battle against organized online scams continues.
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