Cybercriminals stole $20 billion from Americans last year – using AI to clone your grandkids' voices.
Now Kash Patel's FBI just hit back in a way nobody in Washington, DC has ever tried.
And what the FBI found inside these criminal networks will make your blood boil.
Operation Riptide: 60 Days, 200 Arrests, and a Global Criminal Empire in Ruins
Patel launched Operation Riptide in June against the global cybercrime networks draining American wallets.
When it was over, FBI agents had made more than 200 arrests.
They froze or seized $23 million in illegal cryptocurrency.
They initiated the recovery of another $31 million stolen by North Korean actors.
Six suspects were extradited.
And 170 domains and servers – the digital machinery these criminals used to prey on your family – were seized and shut down.
"Operation Riptide was the FBI's historic 60-day campaign targeting cybercriminals preying on Americans here at home and around the world," Patel told Fox News Digital. "We went after this criminal enterprise more aggressively than we ever have."
https://twitter.com/FBICyberDiv/status/2087584957463953576?s=20
Among the targets: a member of the pro-Russia hacktivist group Cyber Army of Russia Reborn, arrested by Spanish authorities in coordination with FBI Los Angeles.
Also taken down: a Chinese phishing platform called Outsider – a criminal subscription service that sold hacking tools to predators targeting Americans in 54 countries.
The FBI coordinated with Google and Black Lotus Labs to execute the takedown.
The AI Weapon These Criminals Are Using Against Your Family
Here is what makes this moment different from every cybercrime operation that came before it.
Retired FBI cybercrime specialist Scott Augenbaum said the old warning signs no longer work.
"Artificial intelligence is enhancing the cybercriminals' ability to trick people," Augenbaum told Fox News Digital. "Today, you're going to see an email that does not contain grammatical errors. We used to tell people if the email has really bad grammar, it's a scam. That red flag doesn't work anymore."
He is not exaggerating.
Using three seconds of audio scraped from social media – a grandkid's TikTok, a birthday video on Facebook – criminals now clone voices and call grandparents pretending to be in an emergency.
FBI data shows Americans over 60 lost $7.7 billion to cybercrime in 2025 alone – a 37% surge in a single year.
The Senate Special Committee on Aging is now warning that AI-enabled fraud could hit $40 billion annually by 2027.
Forty billion dollars.
Stolen from the people who built this country, one fake phone call at a time.
One Operation Riptide target, Barry Augustinsky, ran a multi-year VoIP fraud scheme targeting mostly elderly Americans – laundering the proceeds and providing fraudulent credit-report access to keep the operation running.
He is now convicted.
That is what justice looks like under Kash Patel's FBI.
Why This Matters More Than the Mainstream Media Will Admit
The Biden FBI spent four years investigating parents at school board meetings.
Patel's FBI spent 60 days dismantling criminal networks that were looting your retirement accounts.
The difference is not a policy shift – it is a complete reversal of who the federal government considers the enemy.
https://twitter.com/FBICyberDiv/status/2084731292206215679?s=20
Operation Riptide also exposes what the political class refuses to acknowledge: this runs through Cambodia, China, Russia, Ghana, and North Korea.
The Huione Group – a Cambodia-based financial conglomerate – had subsidiaries helping criminals launder cryptocurrency through the legitimate banking system.
Five Ghanaian nationals were indicted for romance fraud operations targeting lonely Americans online.
North Korean state actors stole $31 million that the FBI is now working to recover.
These are organized, government-linked, internationally coordinated operations designed to drain American wealth – and for four years under Biden, the FBI was too busy to stop them.
"Cybercriminals depend on borders, anonymity, and rented infrastructure to stay beyond reach," said Brett Leatherman, assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division. "Over 60 days, the FBI and our partners took those advantages away. The pressure we built does not stop here."
Patel is not done.
Sources:
- Kyle Morris, "FBI Wraps Up Cybercrime Operation Targeting Global Networks Preying on Americans," Fox News Digital, August 26, 2026.
- "FBI Touts 20% Murder Drop as Agents Score Arrests, Extraditions and New Indian Country Rewards," Florida Voice News, August 21, 2026.
- "Operation Riptide: A Look Back," FBI.gov, August 15, 2026.
- "Senate Committee Looks to Stop AI-Enabled Fraud Against Older Adults," Spectrum News, July 30, 2026.
- "Elder Fraud Rises as Scammers Use AI," Journal of Accountancy, April 2026.
- "Scams Targeting Retirees in 2026," AOL Finance, June 2026.