Meta on Wednesday announced a major operation conducted in collaboration with law enforcement to disrupt scam centers targeting its users.
The operation involved the FBI, the DOJ Scam Center Strike Force, and police in Thailand, and targeted scam centers in Southeast Asia.
According to the social media giant, the scam centers targeted users in the US, UK, and the APAC region.
Thai Police arrested 21 suspects and Meta shut down more than 150,000 accounts leveraged by the scam centers. In a similar operation conducted in December the company removed 59,000 accounts, pages, and groups across its platforms.
In addition to directly targeting these scam centers, Meta said it removed more than 159 million fraudulent ads in 2025.
Meta also announced several new anti-scam tools on Wednesday. One of them warns WhatsApp users of potentially malicious device-linking attempts, which scammers leverage to trick users into linking the attacker’s device to the victim’s account.
The company also unveiled a feature designed to protect Facebook users by alerting them to suspicious friend requests (both sent and received). The alerts are triggered by indicators such as a lack of mutual friends, a recently created profile, and location differences.
For Messenger, the social media giant announced an advanced detection system that flags potential scams.
The company says it has been using AI to detect scams impersonating brands, celebrities, and public figures, as well as deceptive links and fake domains.
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Related: Meta Paid Out $4 Million via Bug Bounty Program in 2025
