The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Interior said an international operation identified more than $39 billion in funds and digital assets linked to fraud, with recovery work underway.
Operation Confrontation Ghost ran from July 1 through Sept. 30, 2026. Its coalition brought together law enforcement from 30 countries, INTERPOL, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and 13 private-sector partners. Those partners included Bayut, Crypto.com, dubizzle, Feedzai, Ghostly Solutions, Group-IB, Huawei, Mastercard, Miya Pico, Meta, Outseer, TikTok and Trend Micro. The ministry said the campaign targeted AI-enabled fraud, financial fraud through digital platforms and online sextortion.
The ministry credited the operation with thwarting more than 123.71 million online fraud attempts worldwide. Authorities also reported 4,126 bank accounts blocked, more than 570 fraud-linked social media accounts closed and raids at 29 fraud centers. More than 960 defendants were arrested; authorities identified more than 3,500 suspects and 15,500 victims, and exchanged more than 9,000 intelligence items.
The $39 billion figure refers to assets identified as linked to fraud. The ministry said participating countries, judicial authorities and companies are pursuing recovery, but did not provide a total recovered. EconoTimes previously covered the operation's asset estimate and recovery effort.
The ministry also credited tokenization technology with helping protect more than 4 billion financial transactions per month. It did not give a recovery timetable.
The results were announced at a UAE-organized side event in Vienna during the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, held Oct. 19-23, WAM reported. Dr. Monica Kathina Juma, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said criminal networks can move money through online services, bank accounts and cryptocurrencies while hiding its source. She called for closer international coordination and stronger defenses, WAM reported.
