Meta announced Thursday that it had removed 2 million accounts associated with “pig-butchering”, investment schemes that leave their victims without large sums.

The scams involving pig-butchering are long-term schemes in which the scammers pretend to be romantic or friendly individuals, or as government or business officials who then manipulate victims into investing money.

These schemes are not profitable, and victims often lose large amounts of money in cryptocurrency.

In a Thursday press release, Meta said that “criminals target people around the world every day through text messages, dating apps, Facebook and social media in a so-called pig-butchering” and other schemes to try and con them into making scam investments.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, has said that it “continuously investigates” the criminal organizations behind these scams. These groups run scam compounds that appeared during the COVID-19 epidemic in Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia as well as the United Arab Emirates, Philippines, and United Arab Emirates.

Meta reported that these scam centers lure job seekers into believing in unrealistic job listings and then force them to become online scammers. This is done by physically threatening the job seekers. According to the U.S. Institute of Peace (an independent research organization created by Congress), up to 300,000 individuals are forced to work in these roles.

Meta, a company that specializes in countering this threat, said it was working with experts from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and law enforcement agencies in the U.S.A. and Southeast Asia.

After a criminal group linked to such schemes is designated as dangerous organizations or individuals (DOIs), they are barred from the platform, and face various enforcement tools.

Meta explained that investigators also keep an eye on DOIs who try to avoid the enforcement of laws. This includes looking for new compounds or disrupting operations repeatedly.

Meta works with companies within the industry to share information on criminal syndicates that may be targeting online users across various platforms. The tech giant cited a recent instance where OpenAI provided information to Meta about a scam complex in Cambodia. Meta was able to stop the malicious activity.

According to the U.S. Institute of Peace, as of 2023, the schemes have stolen approximately $64 billion.