Global Trends

The cyber police unit of Mexico's Michoacán state prosecutor's office has published 14 phone numbers used in calls that threaten people into paying for loans they say they never took. Nine of the numbers are Mexican, three are Colombian and one is Nicaraguan. The pattern matches Mexico's "montadeudas" loan-app extortion.

French police warn that fake letters in the name of France's tax authority, the DGFiP, are using the EU's DAC8 crypto-reporting directive to demand registration on a "Digital Assets Portal" that does not exist. A QR code leads to a cloned site that takes tax logins and then wallet recovery phrases. Tax authorities in the Netherlands and Germany have reported similar DAC8-themed phishing emails.

Pakistan's NCCIA has booked 130 Malaysian nationals over an alleged call centre at KASA Tower, Bahria Town, Rawalpindi, that posed as bank staff and Malaysian police to defraud people in Malaysia, with money allegedly routed through Touch 'n Go eWallet and crypto. FIR 182/26 says a Malaysian known as "Jack" allegedly directed it from Cambodia. A visa annex reviewed by MoCA shows 26 of 124 visible entries still marked valid.

Only four of about 150 public European protest posts from October 2026 reached a like-to-follower ratio of 400% or more, and all came from accounts with fewer than 22,000 followers. One Facebook page with 38 followers drew 7,300 likes. Global outlets stayed under 1%. These four case studies show what Meta's recommendation system chose to amplify, and why.

India's I4C has sent Google five new takedown orders, dated 1 and 9 October 2026, covering 174 Firebase databases and phishing sites used in "Android God Mode" banking malware that steals OTPs, SMS and card data. The orders follow 57 takedowns in August and 216 on 20 September, bringing disclosed Firebase takedowns since August to more than 440.

Meta Pixel is a tracking code that websites use to measure their Facebook and Instagram ads. Each Pixel ID tags data to its owner. Scam networks abuse it by loading dozens of Pixels on throwaway job-scam sites before pushing victims to WhatsApp. Their habit of reusing the same Pixel IDs across domains is what links those sites to a single operator.

An appeal circulating in Chinese-language channels claims more than 400 Indians and 1,000 Chinese nationals are held at a scam compound called Koe Ma Nee near Myawaddy, Myanmar, at reported coordinates 17.139675, 98.263031. It alleges 18-hour workdays, electric shocks, sexual harassment, a Rs 10 lakh exit fee and at least seven Indian deaths. None of these claims have been independently verified.

Varanasi Police have dismantled a SIM box network run from three rented sites that converted foreign internet calls into local Indian mobile calls for "digital arrest" fraud. Officers seized six 32-port SIM boxes with 192 slots, VPN gateways and routers, and arrested two people. A mule account linked to the network received Rs 25 lakh from one victim and is tied to 41 complaints across several states.

Police say suspects allegedly posed as Chinese prosecutors and police officers to target Chinese nationals, including people living in the United States. Investigators seized 82 mobile phones, laptops, passports and recordings of the alleged impersonations.

During Joint Disruption Week in London, Coinbase's Global Intelligence team traced illicit funds, helped freeze assets and shared intelligence in real time. It proactively identified more than 65 active scam victims and stopped over $415,000 in potential losses before they occurred.

Delhi Police's IFSO unit has dismantled a digital arrest and investment fraud network tied to handlers in Cambodia and Southeast Asia, arresting 11 people and securing Rs 7.25 crore. The case shows a laundering chain that crosses borders: InDelhi Police's Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit has disdian mule accounts traded on Telegram, an SMS-forwarding APK relaying bank OTPs abroad, and handler commissions paid in USDT. It is linked to 78 complaints worth about Rs 73 crore.

A US-UK-led "Joint Disruption Week" against West African scam centres led to 28 arrests in Ghana and Nigeria, the rescue of 117 trafficking victims and the removal of more than 3.7 million fraudulent social media accounts, Pages and Groups, the largest takedown of its kind. India joined the operation, which was hosted by the UK's National Crime Agency, and tech partners identified over $11 million in potentially freezable funds.