The FBI co-ordinated the raids over several months against groups of people suspected of stealing millions of pounds from companies and individuals. Almost USD 3.7 million in cash had been seized during the raids, said the FBI. Evidence gathered from the law enforcement operation should lead to another USD 118 million being seized, it added.
The global campaign, Operation Rewired, saw raids in the US, UK, Nigeria, Turkey, Ghana, France, Italy, Japan, Kenya and Malaysia over the past four months.
Of those arrested, 167 were from Nigeria.
The fraud involves tricking victims into wiring money to bank accounts controlled by fraudsters. The scam, which it calls Business Email Compromise (BEC), had led to losses of more than USD 26 billion globally since 2016, the FBIs Internet Complaint Crime Centre said.
The FBI urged anyone handling money transfer requests that arrived by email to take extra time to verify the identity of the sender and that the request was genuine.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now
We welcome comments that add value to the discussion. We attempt to block comments that use offensive language or appear to be spam, and our editors frequently review the comments to ensure they are appropriate. If you see a comment that you believe is inappropriate to the discussion, you can bring it to our attention by using the report abuse links. As the comments are written and submitted by visitors of the The Paypers website, they in no way represent the opinion of The Paypers.