Morocco joins global fraud crackdown that identifies $39 billion and leads to more than 960 arrests
Bank fraud, scams using artificial intelligence and online blackmail: Morocco took part in a major international police operation. Conducted across thirty countries, it led to more than 960 arrests and uncovered substantial suspected assets.
For three months, police officers and digital specialists tracked bank accounts, cryptocurrencies and social media profiles. Morocco was among the countries involved in “Confrontation Ghost,” an operation led by the United Arab Emirates, according to a statement published on October 22.
Investigators identified more than $39 billion in funds and cryptocurrencies linked to scams. Authorities and their partners are now working to recover these assets, the Emirati Interior Ministry says. Recovering them is the operation’s next step.
Conducted from July 1 to September 30, the operation targeted scams using artificial intelligence, digital financial fraud and sextortion, a form of blackmail involving intimate content.
More than 960 arrests across thirty countries
The international tally is substantial: more than 960 arrests, 3,500 suspects and 15,500 victims identified. Police raided 29 fraud centres. They also identified more than 4,126 suspicious bank accounts and secured the closure of more than 570 social media accounts.
The operation brought together INTERPOL and thirteen companies, including Meta, TikTok, Mastercard, Huawei and Crypto.com. More than 9,000 pieces of intelligence were shared among participating agencies to track down suspects, trace financial flows and identify victims.
The Emirati agency WAM reports that 123.71 million online fraud attempts were thwarted. The daily newspaper The National describes an effort involving police, digital platforms and financial institutions.
Morocco appears on the official list alongside France, Italy and the Netherlands, among others. The arrest tally is published for the operation as a whole, with no country-by-country breakdown.
Presented in Vienna at a United Nations conference on organized crime, the results mark the start of another phase: recovering the billions of dollars identified by investigators.
