- The UAE-led Operation Confrontation Ghost flagged over $39 billion in suspected fraud-linked assets.
- Authorities arrested more than 960 defendants and identified 15,500 victims across the operation.
- The three-month operation involved police from 30 countries and 13 private-sector companies.
A three-month global operation led by the United Arab Emirates has put more than $39 billion of funds and digital assets under scrutiny as suspected proceeds of online fraud, though none of that sum has yet been recovered.
What Was Announced
The UAE Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that Operation Confrontation Ghost ran from July 1 to September 30. Police from 30 countries took part, along with INTERPOL, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and 13 companies from the technology, payments and online platform sectors.
The operation targeted three types of crime: scams built on artificial intelligence, financial fraud run through digital platforms, and online sextortion.
The ministry reported these results:
- More than 960 defendants arrested
- More than 3,500 suspects and 15,500 victims identified
- More than 9,000 pieces of intelligence swapped between agencies
- 4,126 bank accounts blocked
- More than 570 social media accounts tied to fraud shut down
- 29 fraud centres raided
- More than 123.71 million online fraud attempts stopped worldwide
The ministry did not say how the arrests or raids were divided among countries.
$39 Billion Figure
The $39B sum describes assets flagged as linked to fraud. It is not money seized. Countries, courts and the private partners involved are now working to recover it, and the ministry gave no timeline or expected recovery rate.
The ministry also said tokenisation technology helped protect more than four billion financial transactions a month. It did not explain how that figure was measured.
Who Took Part
The countries included the UK, Canada, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, France, China, Italy, Brazil, Kenya, the Netherlands and South Korea. Company partners included Meta, TikTok, Mastercard, Huawei, Group-IB, Trend Micro, Feedzai and Crypto.com. Property sites Bayut and dubizzle, along with Ghostly Solutions, Miya Pico and Outseer, were also listed.
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UAE Presents Operation Findings in Vienna
The UAE presented the findings at a side event during the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime. The conference runs in Vienna from October 19 to 23.
Colonel Dana Al Marzouqi, director general of the ministry’s International Affairs Bureau, said fraud networks exploit online platforms, financial services and new technology to operate across borders, and that real-time intelligence sharing speeds up detection and the tracing of illicit money flows.
The head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Dr. Monica Kathina Juma, called the operation a model for tackling new forms of crime. She warned that criminals are increasingly using AI, bank accounts, and cryptocurrencies to move money and hide its origin, and said countermeasures and cooperation must keep improving.
Operation Confrontation Ghost highlights the growing role of international cooperation in tackling online fraud and tracing illicit funds. However, with more than $39 billion in assets flagged but no recovery reported, the next challenge is turning intelligence sharing and enforcement actions into actual recoveries.
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Related: Crypto Tracing Helps UAE and Sweden Bust $7 Million Laundering Ring
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