FBI Busts Major Ghana Scam Centre in “Operation Blackout” – $10M Lost, 130 Arrested

The FBI has hit a major scam syndicate in Ghana as part of its global crackdown dubbed “Operation Blackout.”

According to the Bureau, its latest takedown in Ghana has uncovered nearly $10 million in identified losses, linked to 89 victims of the operation.

In a massive raid, more than 130 people were arrested or detained; including suspected trafficking victims who were forced to work in the centre, while over 300 devices were seized.

The FBI says investigations are still ongoing

What is Operation Blackout?

Operation Blackout is the FBI’s worldwide operation targeting overseas fraud factories that target Americans, especially through romance scams, business email compromise (BEC), and crypto investment scams.

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According to FBI Director Kash Patel, in a September 2026 update, Operation Blackout has so far:

• Seized roughly $17 BILLION

• Arrested hundreds of suspects

• Freed thousands of trafficked workers forced to run scams

• Warned 10,000+ Americans before they lost their money through its prevention program “Operation Level Up”

The program alone helped prevent an estimated $660 million in losses, with $`122 million in crypto seized or frozen. Officials said 77% of those contacted didn’t even know they were being scammed.

Ghana has become a key hotspot in the fight. In recent years, Ghanaian authorities including EOCO, Ghana Police Service-INTERPOL, Cyber Security Authority and National Intelligence Bureau have worked with the FBI to bust several `$100M romance scam networks.

Suspects like Isaac Oduro Boateng (Kofi Boat), Inusah Ahmed and Derrick Van Yeboah were extradited to the US in August 2025 for allegedly running a $100M scam enterprise from Ghana between 2016-2023.

This latest bust shows the crackdown is intensifying, with scam centres using trafficked labour, hundreds of phones and laptops, and sophisticated scripts to defraud victims in the US and beyond.

The FBI is urging anyone who thinks they may have been contacted by these scammers to stop all payments, preserve chats, phone numbers and wallet addresses, and file a report at the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).