INTERPOL’s Operation First Light identified 15,606 suspects, made 5,811 arrests, and seized $293 million in a global effort to stop cyber-enabled fraud.
On July 9, 2026, INTERPOL shared the success of Operation First Light, a project that targeted fraud in nearly 100 countries and territories. The operation, which ran from January 15th, 2026 to April 20th, 2026, culminated in the arrests of 5,811 and seized 293 million in USD. First Light’s main focus hinged on social engineering, which Interpol described as "techniques that exploit a person’s trust to obtain money or confidential information. This type of fraud can include business email compromise, sextortion, as well as romance, impersonation or investment scams.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has observed the increase of fraudulent, cyber-enabled crime in their annual Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Reports, which catalogue offenses reported by web surfers all over the world. The 2023 IC3 report shared that the majority of complaints were made on phishing crimes, an extremely common type of social engineering. Impersonation fraud and investment scams led to $1.3 billion and $4.57 billion in losses, respectively. In 2024, the IC3 assessment attributed 83% of the year’s reported $16.6 billion in losses to cyber-enabled fraud. The growing trends utilized by cybercriminals - like call center scams, gold courier scams, emergency scams, and toll scams - also all depended on social engineering. The most recent IC3 report only emphasized the growth of cyber fraud. Of the total losses ($20.877 billion) from 2025’s complaints, 85% came from fraudulent activity.
The increase in scams powered by social engineering is likely correlated with the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI). In 2024, an AI deepfake video conference call was so convincing that a Hong Kong finance worker paid $200 million Hong Kong dollars ($25.6 million USD) to a fraudster. AI scams have only advanced further since 2024, unfortunately. Improvements in voice replication with AI have been used to deceive parents into paying thousands in ransoms for children that were never truly under threat of kidnapping. In Ontario, at least one senior was the victim of a cryptocurrency pig-butchering scam - the 86 year old Judy Skene was tricked into investing in a crypto investment platform after seeing an ad with a deepfake video of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. After being told that her initial investment had tripled, she invested $900,000 before all her money disappeared without so much as a conversation. By some estimates, scams based on deepfakes may grow 495% in 2026 - so the problem isn’t likely to disappear anytime soon.
Still, the achievements of Operation First Light show that fraud can still be defeated. The initiative identified more than 142,000 victims worldwide. In addition to the 5,811 arrests, law enforcement discovered 15,606 suspects through their analysis of 152,808 cases. The work that solved 23,715 cases also blocked 31,014 bank accounts, and issued nearly 100 Notices and Diffusions. The press release highlighted fraud crackdowns in China, Eswatini, Oman, Palau, Singapore, and Thailand. In China, an anti-fraud community campaign uncovered one public participant being manipulated into sending money to criminals impersonating public officials, ironically in part of what they claimed was a ‘fraud investigation.’ The police prevented the victim from sending nearly $372,000 to the criminals.
In another ironic scheme, a cybercrime gang in Eswatini ran a different law enforcement impersonation operation that included props and costume design: “In Eswatini, police arrested 82 people and dismantled a criminal network running illegal online gambling, money laundering and elaborate impersonation scams. Authorities seized 240 electronic devices, foreign currency and a realistic replica of a Brazilian police station, complete with fake uniforms, signage and equipment. Posing as Brazil’s Federal Police via video call, the scammers deceived their targets into believing they were victims of a crime, tricking them into transferring funds for ‘safekeeping,’ which were then stolen.” Curiously, other sets dressed as police offices used by threat actors in Cambodia were also exposed in an investigation by Thailand’s law enforcement earlier this year.
Continuing the fight against cyber scam networks in Southeast Asia, Thai police in this operation put an end to a money laundering plot that converted gains from romance scams into cryptocurrency. The conspirators processed substantial amounts of money, as “the digital wallet of one of the suspects, aged 20, had processed more than $122.5 million USD in just 10 months.” In Singapore, a commodity trading firm was at risk of sending $6.6 million USD to bad actors behind a Business Email Compromise Scam - but were stopped with the help of authorities in Singapore and Oman.
International collaboration, like that between Singapore and Oman, was likely a key part of First Light. The project was funded by ASEANAPOL, GCCPOL, and Europol, and relied on the work of 97 participating countries, connecting each continent for one goal. The Director of the INTERPOL Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, Tomonobu Kaya, commented on the unity needed for the project while underlining INTERPOL’s aim: “Social engineering scams continue to pose a significant threat to our society. Criminal syndicates exploit human psychology to manipulate their targets, and no nation can stay safe unless all countries are equipped and committed to jointly fighting back. INTERPOL is dedicated to supporting member countries in building a comprehensive, coordinated strategy to tackle cyber-enabled financial crimes, organized criminal networks and the money laundering that fuels them." Hopefully, Operation First Light will be just one accomplishment in a longer string of successes to stop cyber-enabled fraud.