FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau has seized roughly $17 billion tied to sprawling overseas scam operations as part of an expanding global crackdown called Operation Blackout, according to comments given to Fox News Digital.
Operation Blackout is the FBI’s campaign to identify, disrupt and dismantle foreign scam compounds that target Americans. It combines overseas raids and asset seizures with efforts to cut communications networks used by scammers, rescue trafficked workers, and return stolen funds to victims.
Patel said the criminal syndicates behind these operations run massive scam compounds across Southeast Asia and the Middle East, staffed largely by trafficked workers forced to carry out fraud against victims thousands of miles away.
“Unfortunately, the majority of the targets are senior citizens in America,” Patel said, noting that scammers reach victims through social media, phone calls, text messages and Telegram.
One common scheme involves a scammer building an online relationship with a victim, then steering them toward a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platform. Victims initially believe their money is growing, only to find they cannot withdraw it.
“These are towns, these are cities,” Patel said. “These are actual villages with structures where they force people into forced labor.”
In one victim account shared with the FBI, a 71-year-old said: “I’m old enough to know that people my age are certainly often targeted because of our unfamiliarity with certain new technologies. Thanks so much for looking out for us.” Another victim said: “I watched my grandmother lose her life savings to scammers and I would love to see them all be put away.”
Raids and Seizures Abroad
In August, an operation at Cambodia’s roughly 200-acre O’Smach Resort scam compound involved searches of 28 buildings over three days. Agents seized 113 hard drives, 15 computers and 35 boxes of evidence, according to the FBI.
In September, a Justice Department Scam Center Strike Force team that included FBI Honolulu personnel assisted authorities in Madagascar in shutting down 13 scam centers operated by Chinese organized crime syndicates, processing more than 3,200 electronic devices.
Patel said the operations are shifting locations as networks adapt. “That’s why you’re seeing the migration of these scam compounds to central and sub-Saharan Africa, which is where we are already pre-positioned to take them off,” he said.
Trying to Stop Losses Before They Happen
Alongside the overseas raids, the FBI runs a domestic prevention effort called Operation Level Up, which proactively identifies and contacts Americans believed to be targets of cryptocurrency investment scams.
The bureau says it has notified 10,406 potential victims and prevented an estimated $660 million in losses, while seizing or freezing another $122 million in cryptocurrency. Officials say 77% of those contacted did not realize they were being scammed.
The FBI has also referred 99 victims for suicide intervention, seized 584 scam websites, and sent 7,670 scam accounts to private companies for further action.
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