Meta disables 150,000 accounts in global sting on Southeast Asian scam centres

Meta disabled more than 150,000 accounts and Thai Police arrested 21 people in a sweeping international crackdown on Southeast Asian criminal scam centres that targeted people around the world, the social media giant said on Wednesday.The operation was led by Thailand’s Royal Thai Police Anti-Cyber Scam Centre alongside the FBI and the US Justice Department’s Scam Centre Strike Force, with Meta investigators acting on intelligence shared in real time by law enforcement.Online scam networks – many operating out of compounds in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos – have grown increasingly sophisticated in recent years, running what authorities describe as full-scale criminal business operations designed to evade detection.Scammers working at these fraud compounds lure internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments and have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal billions of dollars from victims around the world.Cambodian authorities display equipment seized from a scam centre in Phnom Penh on Wednesday. Photo: EPA