ON 12 March 2026, Meta announced a major operation conducted with law enforcement to disrupt scam centers targeting its users, involving the FBI, the DOJ Scam Center Strike Force, and police in Thailand. The effort targeted scam centres in Southeast Asia and, according to Meta, these centres aimed at users in the US, UK, and the APAC region.
Thai Police arrested 21 suspects, and Meta shut down more than 150,000 accounts used by the scam networks, following a similar December operation that removed 59,000 accounts, pages and groups. In addition to dismantling these centres, Meta said it removed more than 159 million fraudulent ads in 2025.
The company also unveiled several new anti-scam tools, including a WhatsApp warning for potentially malicious device-linking attempts and alerts for suspicious Facebook friend requests, with Messenger receiving an advanced detection system to flag potential scams. Meta has stated it has been using AI to detect scams impersonating brands, celebrities and public figures, as well as deceptive links and fake domains.