Meta disabled more than 150,000 accounts tied to scam centres in Southeast Asia on Wednesday and 21 arrests were made in Thailand, a Meta news release said.
KEY FACTS
- Accounts disabled More than 150,000 accounts linked to scam centres
- Arrests 21 arrests in Thailand
- Platforms Actions covered Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger
- 2025 removals 159 million scam ads and 10.9 million accounts removed in 2025
The news release said the disruption built on a December 2025 pilot that removed about 59,000 accounts, Pages and Groups and led to six arrest warrants.
The company outlined new user protections including warnings on Facebook for suspicious accounts, alerts for suspicious WhatsApp device linking requests and expanded AI-assisted scam review prompts on Messenger for risky new contacts.
The company reported removing over 159 million scam ads during 2025 and taking down 10.9 million accounts on Facebook and Instagram linked to criminal scam centres, and said it plans to expand advertiser verification to increase transparency.
The development coincides with the U.K. government’s new Online Crime Centre, described in the U.K. government announcement as backed by over A330 million to deploy AI, speed up responses to suspicious transfers and use scam-baiting chatbots to gather intelligence.
WHY IT MATTERS
Coordinated platform actions and new detection tools aim to disrupt industrialised scam networks and reduce victim harm. Cross-sector initiatives such as the U.K. centre could increase the scale and speed of takedowns of scam infrastructure.