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INTERPOL announced on July 9 that a global anti-fraud operation led to 5,811 arrests and the interception of $293 million in illicit assets. Operation First Light 2026 ran from January 15 to April 30 and drew in 97 countries and territories. It focused on social engineering scams and the money laundering that moves the proceeds. Investigators identified more than 142,000 victims worldwide.
The scams covered a familiar range: business email compromise, romance and investment fraud, sextortion, and impersonation. Police analyzed 152,808 cases, blocked 31,014 bank accounts, and identified 15,606 suspects. A large share of the money was stopped in transit. Authorities in Singapore and Oman used INTERPOL's I-GRIP payment-block system to freeze a $6.6 million transfer after criminals posed as a supplier to a Singapore commodity firm.
The cases show how staged physical props and remote scripts now work together. In Eswatini, police arrested 82 people and found a full replica of a Brazilian police station, complete with fake uniforms and signage, used to convince victims over video call that they were under investigation. In Thailand, investigators traced a 20-year-old suspect whose wallet had moved more than $122 million in ten months. In Macao, an anti-fraud outreach event reached a resident mid-scam, and police stepped in before he sent close to $372,000 to people posing as officials.
Business email compromise is the strand that reaches corporate security most directly. It runs on a convincing email and a plausible request, not a technical breach. Tomonobu Kaya, who directs INTERPOL's Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, said criminal syndicates "exploit human psychology to manipulate their targets." The operation was funded by China's Ministry of Public Security and supported by Europol and two regional police bodies.
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