LYON, France – A global anti-fraud operation involving 97 countries and territories has led to the arrests of 5,811 people and the interception of $293 million in illicit assets.
Operation First Light 2026 (January 15, 2026 – April 30, 2026), coordinated by INTERPOL, focused on combating social engineering scams and related money laundering activities.
Social engineering is a broad term that refers to techniques that exploit a person’s trust to obtain money or confidential information. This type of fraud can include business email scams, sextortion, and romance, identity, or investment scams.
After an initial phase of information gathering and exchange, participating countries engaged in more than three months of operational activities. These included proactive actions against high-value targets, raids on identified premises, the suspension or freezing of bank accounts and virtual wallets, the requirement of INTERPOL notices and diffusions, and the proactive use of INTERPOL’s Global Rapid Intervention of Payments (I-GRIP), a payment stop mechanism that facilitates the rapid blocking of illicit financial flows of both fiat and virtual assets.
During Operation First Light 2026, over 142,000 victims were identified worldwide, highlighting the extent to which social engineering scams have escalated into a major transnational threat affecting individuals, companies and governments. Other important results include:
– 152,808 cases analyzed
– 31,014 bank accounts blocked
– 23,715 cases solved
– 15,606 suspects identified
– 99 notices and notices issued
In Eswatini, police have dismantled a criminal network that ran illegal online gambling, money laundering and elaborate scams.
Authorities in Eswatini seized 240 electronic devices, foreign currency and a realistic replica of a Brazilian police station, complete with fake uniforms, shields and equipment.
Sri Lankan authorities conducted several raids and enforcement operations as part of Operation First Light.
During the three-month operation, hundreds of suspects were arrested in Sri Lanka for their involvement in cyber fraud centers.
An INTERPOL operational support team is being deployed to support the authorities in Eswatini.
Tomonobu Kaya, Director of the INTERPOL Financial Crimes and Anti-Corruption Center, said:
“Social engineering scams continue to pose a significant threat to our society. Crime syndicates exploit the human psyche to manipulate their targets, and no country can remain safe unless all countries are equipped and determined to fight back together. INTERPOL is committed to helping member countries build a comprehensive, coordinated strategy to combat cybercrime, organized criminal networks and the money laundering that drives them support.”
Table of Contents
From fraud centers to money laundering, key cases reveal the full spectrum of financial fraud
• In Eswatini, police arrested 82 people and dismantled a criminal network that ran illegal online gambling, money laundering and elaborate identity theft scams. Authorities seized 240 electronic devices, foreign currency and a realistic replica of a Brazilian police station, complete with fake uniforms, shields and equipment. The fraudsters posed as Brazilian federal police via video call and tricked their victims into thinking they were victims of a crime, tricking them into transferring funds for “custody” which were then stolen.
Due to the volume and complexity of the digital evidence, an INTERPOL operational support team was deployed at the request of the authorities in Eswatini to conduct a forensic analysis of the seized devices.
• In Thailand, police made two arrests and uncovered a money laundering scheme in which illicit funds from romance scams were funneled into various cryptocurrencies, using cross-chain token swaps to obscure the financial trail. Investigations revealed that the digital wallet of one of the 20-year-old suspects was used to process more than $122.5 million in just 10 months.
• Authorities in Singapore and Oman used I-GRIP to block a $6.6 million illegal transfer related to a business email compromise scam. In this case, a Singapore-based commodities trading company was targeted by criminals posing as a supplier.
• Police in Macau, China, conducted an anti-fraud outreach effort as part of Operation First Light 2026. During the initiative, police discovered that one of the public participants was being actively manipulated by a crime syndicate. The perpetrators posed as civil servants and persuaded the victim to transfer money under the guise of a fraud investigation. Thanks to the public campaign, the police were able to intervene before the victim transferred almost $372,000 to the fraudsters.
• Authorities in Palau have deported 22 people for their roles in two linked fraud schemes run out of hotels. The suspects used cryptocurrencies and illegal gambling websites to target victims abroad and ran a series of online fraud schemes.
Notes for editors
Operation First Light is funded by China’s Ministry of Public Security and supported by the participation of three regional police agencies: ASEANAPOL, GCCPOL and Europol.
Participating countries: Albania, Anguilla (UK), Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Eswatini, France, Gambia, Ghana, Gibraltar (UK), Greece, Honduras, Hong Kong (China), Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macau (China), Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2026/Over-5-800-arrests-USD-293-million-intercepted-in-global-fraud-bust
