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The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) says 5,811 suspects have been arrested over “social engineering scams” during an operation involving 97 countries.
In a statement published on Interpol’s website, the global policing organisation said the raids, codenamed “Operation First Light 2026”, were carried out between January 15 and April 30, 2026.
Interpol said the operation “focused on combatting social engineering scams and associated money laundering activities”.
According to the organisation, the social engineering-related fraud includes business email compromise, sextortion, and romance, impersonation, and investment scams.
Interpol said illicit assets worth $293 million were “intercepted”.
The organisation added that during the operation, 142,000 victims were identified, 152,808 cases were analysed, 31,014 bank accounts were blocked, 23,715 cases were solved, and 15,606 suspects were identified.
“Operation First Light 2026 (15 Jan 2026 – 30 April 2026), coordinated by INTERPOL, focused on combatting social engineering scams and associated money laundering activities,” the statement reads.
“Social engineering is a broad term that refers to techniques that exploit a person’s trust to obtain money or confidential information.
“This type of fraud can include business email compromise and sextortion, as well as romance, impersonation or investment scams.
“After an initial period of intelligence collection and exchange, participating countries took part in more than three months of operational activities.
“This included proactive action against high-value targets, raiding identified premises, blocking or freezing bank accounts and virtual wallets, requesting INTERPOL Notices and Diffusions and proactively utilising INTERPOL’s Global Rapid Intervention of Payments (I-GRIP), a stop-payment mechanism that facilitates the swift blocking of illicit financial flows of both fiat and virtual assets.
“Over 142,000 victims globally were identified during Operation First Light 2026, highlighting the extent to which social engineering scams and fraud have escalated into a major transnational threat, affecting individuals, businesses and governments.”
Speaking about the operation, Tomonobu Kaya, director of the Interpol financial crime and anti-corruption centre, said social engineering scams continue to pose a significant threat to society.
Kaya said the criminal networks exploit human psychology to manipulate their targets.
