Last November’s arrests of 1,316 Chinese nationals working at Jack Lam’s illegal online gambling operation in the Philippines were part of a broader crackdown on cybercrime by global cops Interpol.

A week ago, Interpol revealed that the Lam arrests were part of Operation First Light 2016, a two-month operation targeting not only illegal online gambling but a variety of “social engineering fraud” scams targeting victims in China.

The fraudsters reportedly posed as law enforcement or justice officials during their contacts with Chinese citizens, who were told their bank accounts had been compromised by criminals. The victims were then instructed to deposit money into designated bank accounts in the guise of tracking the criminals’ activities.

Interpol followed up the Lam bust with the arrest in December of a further 200 Chinese nationals working out of 13 call centers in Spain. These operations reportedly scammed €16m from their Chinese marks before the whip came down.