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Meta said on November 21, 2024, that it had removed more than 2 million accounts during 2024 linked to scam centers in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines. The figure describes accounts—not two million confirmed individual scammers or victims—and it is not Meta’s latest removal total. The company later reported 10.9 million Facebook and Instagram accounts associated with criminal scam centers removed in 2025. Account takedowns can disrupt a network’s ability to find and contact people, but they do not establish that every scam has stopped or that victims will recover their money.
What Meta’s two-million figure counts
Meta’s November 2024 announcement described more than 2 million accounts it removed during that year because they were linked to scam-center operations in five countries. The company did not say that each account had independently been proven to defraud someone. Nor does an account count tell readers how many distinct people operated those profiles, how many victims they contacted, or how much money was lost. Meta’s announcement is the source for the enforcement figure.
The distinction matters: accounts are platform objects, not a headcount of criminals. Some may be fake profiles, while others could involve compromised accounts or people coerced into operating them. A social account’s removal also does not necessarily take down the related website, payment route, cryptocurrency wallet, or physical operation.
How a pig-butchering scam works
“Pig butchering” is a form of investment fraud in which a criminal first cultivates trust, then steers a target toward a fraudulent investment platform. The metaphor refers to building up the victim’s confidence before trying to extract money. Contact may begin through social media, a dating service, a messaging app, text or email; the conversation can move across services before any investment is mentioned.
- Initial contact: A stranger sends a message or develops a connection, sometimes presenting themselves as a potential romantic partner, friend or successful investor.
- Trust-building: The contact invests time in conversation and may share personal details or stories to make the relationship feel genuine.
- The investment pitch: The person introduces cryptocurrency or another investment and directs the target to a website or app they control or recommend.
- False reassurance: The platform may display fabricated account balances, profits or testimonials. Those screens are not proof that funds are invested or withdrawable.
- More deposits: When the target tries to withdraw, the operator may demand additional money for supposed taxes, fees or verification.
- Disappearance or pressure: The criminal may keep demanding transfers, cut off contact, or move the conversation to another account or service.
The FBI describes cases in which victims make real cryptocurrency transfers to fraudulent investment platforms or applications. Once a victim sends funds, an on-screen balance cannot establish that the money remains available. See the FBI’s description of a scam-center investigation.
Why scam centers make the problem harder to solve
A scam center is not merely a cluster of fake profiles. Organized operations can combine victim-targeting teams, scripts and fabricated identities with technical support, sham investment platforms, supervisors and systems for moving proceeds. Governments have described Southeast Asian compounds as part of transnational organized-crime networks targeting people in the United States and elsewhere. The U.S. Department of Justice’s account of actions against Southeast Asian scam centers and a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission study describe the broader organized-crime context.
Some people working inside compounds may be trafficked or coerced rather than freely choosing to run scams. That does not make the fraud harmless, but it cautions against treating every account operator as an organizer. Meanwhile, criminal networks can replace profiles, use compromised accounts, move conversations to other services, or continue through websites and phone numbers. A profile can look like an ordinary personal account rather than an obvious business page, and an approach that begins on one service may shift to another.
Meta’s later enforcement figures are not a simple running total
Meta has described additional enforcement since its 2024 announcement. The figures below come from separate company announcements and operations, and their scopes differ. They should not be added together as if they were a deduplicated count: the announcements do not establish that the sets of accounts are non-overlapping.
| Date or period | What Meta reported | How to read the figure |
|---|---|---|
| November 21, 2024 | More than 2 million accounts removed during 2024. | Accounts linked to scam centers in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the UAE and the Philippines. Meta announcement. |
| 2025, reported in March 2026 | 10.9 million Facebook and Instagram accounts removed, plus more than 159 million scam advertisements. | Meta said the accounts were associated with criminal scam centers; the ads were removed for policy violations. Ad removals are not a count of unique scams or victims. Meta’s 2026 anti-scam update. |
| March 2026 | More than 150,000 accounts disabled. | Meta linked the accounts to Southeast Asian scam-center networks during a law-enforcement operation. Meta’s operation announcement. |
| June 2026 | More than 1.4 million Facebook and Instagram accounts, Pages and Groups disrupted. | This was a broader multinational operation involving other companies and law enforcement; the count includes different platform objects, not only accounts. Meta’s June announcement. |
Meta has also described measures beyond deleting profiles, including cooperation with law enforcement, scam-ad removal, advertiser verification and warnings for suspicious interactions. In March 2026, the company said it was testing or expanding alerts involving signals such as unusual locations, few mutual friends, suspicious friend requests and unusual WhatsApp device-linking activity. These are warning signals, not proof that a person or account is criminal. Details appear in Meta’s anti-scam tools announcement.
Social-media fraud remains costly despite enforcement
The Federal Trade Commission said that nearly 30% of people who reported losing money to a scam in 2025 said it began on social media; reported losses reached $2.1 billion. The FTC also said Facebook was the individual social platform associated with more reported losses than text or email scams in that comparison. These are reported figures, not a measure of every loss: some victims do not report fraud, may feel embarrassed, or may not realize a polished investment app is fraudulent. The FTC’s figures and qualifications are in its 2026 social-media scam data release and Social Media Scam Spotlight.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What takedowns can—and cannot—show
Removing known accounts can make it harder for a network to recruit targets, maintain fake identities and reach users through associated profiles or ads. It can also give investigators information for other actions. But a platform’s removal count is evidence of enforcement activity, not a direct measure of scams prevented or losses avoided.
- It does not establish that every removed account had defrauded a person, or how many victims an account contacted.
- It does not prove that all accounts tied to a network were found, or that the physical scam compound was dismantled.
- It does not show that removed accounts will not be replaced or that a network will not shift to another platform, domain, phone number or encrypted messaging service.
- It does not establish that victims’ funds were recovered.
Disruption can extend beyond platforms when companies and law enforcement act together. The U.S. Department of Justice said a 2026 Disruption Week involved private companies interrupting millions of accounts and internet resources used by transnational organized-crime actors. The department also said information-sharing helped private-sector partners freeze more than $3.8 million in cryptocurrency connected to laundering money stolen from Americans. A freeze is not the same as money being returned to victims. The DOJ’s announcement describes the operation.
Similarly, Meta said its March 2026 operation disabled more than 150,000 accounts; Thai authorities arrested 21 people, according to Meta and Channel NewsAsia’s report. The arrests and account action are distinct outcomes: neither figure alone tells how many victims were protected or compensated.
How to respond to a suspicious investment approach
- Treat unsolicited investment advice from a new online contact as suspicious, especially if the person quickly steers conversation toward cryptocurrency or promises reliable returns.
- Do not transfer cryptocurrency because someone you met online promises guaranteed profits. Do not treat screenshots, testimonials, trading dashboards or displayed balances as independent verification.
- Never pay an unfamiliar platform an extra “tax,” release fee or verification charge to withdraw an investment. Stop communicating before sending more money if the contact becomes urgent, secretive or emotionally manipulative.
- Verify an investment firm and its professionals independently through official regulatory resources rather than links or phone numbers supplied by the contact.
- If you have sent money, contact the bank, payment provider or cryptocurrency exchange you used immediately. Ask whether it can halt or flag the transaction; do not assume a crypto transfer can be reversed.
- Save messages, usernames, phone numbers, website addresses, wallet addresses, transaction IDs and screenshots. These details can help a financial provider or investigator assess what happened.
- Report suspected fraud to the FTC and the FBI; use the FTC’s ReportFraud.gov portal and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center for reports.
Be wary of anyone who contacts you promising to recover lost cryptocurrency for an upfront payment. A prior loss can make a victim a target for a second fraud, and an account takedown does not itself recover transferred funds.
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