Interpol operation finds fake Brazilian federal police station used by scammers in Eswatini

Interpol’s Operation First Light, run between January and April this year, uncovered a fake Polícia Federal office in Eswatini that was used to scam victims in Brazil. For high-risk payments people, the part worth noting is not the costume drama; it is the mix of social engineering, fake law-enforcement authority, and ties to illegal betting and money laundering.

1. According to Interpol, criminals in Eswatini posed as federal police officers on video calls and pressured victims into sending money on the claim that it would be held “under protection.” The funds were then stolen. That kind of scripted impersonation is exactly the sort of fraud that can move through payments before anyone notices the pattern.
2. Authorities in Eswatini arrested 82 people, dismantled a criminal network linked to illegal betting platforms, money laundering, and fraud, and seized 240 electronic devices plus a replica of a Brazilian police station. Fake uniforms of Polícia Federal agents were also found at the site.
3. The broader operation covered 97 countries, led to 5,800 arrests, and froze U$ 293 million in criminal proceeds tied to different social-engineering schemes. For PSPs and acquirers, the scale matters: this was not a local oddity, but a cross-border enforcement sweep with payment flows at the center.
4. Interpol said similar operations in the first four months of the year also disrupted criminal networks in Thailand, China, and Palau. In March, the Thai army said it had found a scam center in O'Smach, Cambodia, where false Brazilian police offices were used alongside versions targeting victims in Australia, Canada, and India.

There is a useful operational detail here: these schemes do not rely on a single payment method. They rely on authority, urgency, and cross-border movement of funds, which means the usual fraud controls have to catch both the impersonation layer and the cash-out layer.