FBI arrests nine in Nigeria in crackdown on scam networks

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says nine people have been arrested in Nigeria in an operation against international scam networks that defraud Americans.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrests on X on Sunday. He said the Nigerian phase of Operation Blackout, the bureau’s global campaign against scam centres, also led to the seizure of 53 electronic devices. Investigators identified $11 million in “potentially freezable funds” spread across several countries.

“These scam centres exploit innocent victims, steal life savings, and operate across international borders believing they are beyond the reach of law enforcement. They’re wrong,” Patel wrote. “To the criminals targeting Americans from overseas: justice will find you.”

He thanked “Nigerian law enforcement and our partners in London for their outstanding cooperation”.

The FBI did not name the Nigerian agency involved, say where the arrests took place, or say what charges the suspects face. The $11 million is money investigators have identified as possibly open to freezing, not money that has been recovered.

The operation was coordinated from London by the UK’s National Crime Agency, with the US Department of Justice and the FBI, according to Technext. Police from 10 countries took part, along with Meta and 14 other technology companies.

According to the Justice Department, the wider crackdown led to 28 arrests across Nigeria and Ghana and the seizure of hundreds of devices. More than 3.7 million fake online accounts, pages and groups were also removed.

Meta said 117 trafficked victims held in a residential compound in Ghana are waiting to be sent home to Nigeria, Technext reported. The figure points to a pattern seen in Asia, where people are lured abroad with promises of jobs and then forced to work for scam operations.

A shift to Africa

Operation Blackout targets so-called scam compounds, large sites where workers, many of them trafficked, run romance, investment and other online frauds. Most of the victims are older people in the US. Patel told Fox News in September that the operation had seized about $17 billion linked to the schemes. He said the networks were moving from Southeast Asia to Africa as pressure grew.

On 8 October, the FBI said an operation in Ghana had led to more than 130 people being arrested or detained, including victims due to be repatriated. Investigators identified nearly $10 million in losses and seized more than 300 devices.

Nigeria ranked 12th among foreign countries named in cybercrime complaints to the FBI in 2025, with 1,219 reports, Technext reported. Nigerian agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the police’s National Cybercrime Centre, regularly arrest suspected internet fraudsters, often called “Yahoo Boys”, in raids across the country.