US declares 'cyber warfare' on scam centres as seniors lose USD 7.7 bn

The Trump administration is for the first time turning offensive cyber weapons on foreign scam centres top officials have said as Homeland Security disclosed that Americans over 60 lost 77 billion to cybercrime in 2025 and the Secret Service reported recovering thousands of child abuse videosldquoWith the executive order that you signed for the first time ever we are using offensive cyber capabilities to dismantle disrupt and disable these foreign scam centres That has never been done beforerdquo White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told President Donald Trump at a White House roundtable on cybercrime and scams on WednesdayldquoSo you have effectively declared cyber warfare against the cyber criminals and that is saving the pensions the life savings the retirement accounts the earnings of countless American citizensrdquo Miller saidSecretary of War Pete Hegseth said the department brought ldquoCyberCom and NSA and the exquisite capabilitiesrdquo to the effort ldquoWersquore feeding our deep intelligence and tracking data on overseas cyber networks directly to the National Coordination Center and Homeland Security Task Forcerdquo he saidldquoWersquove also seen therersquos a very clear connection between transnational cyber syndicates and enemy militaries and how they fund themselvesrdquo Hegseth said without naming any countryTrump said his August national security memorandum unleashed private sector ldquotools and resourcesrdquo to ldquoundertake offensive and defensive actions to stop the hackersrdquo Officials did not say which scam centres had been hit or whereMiller cast the campaign alongside Trumprsquos trade agenda speaking of ldquoentire foreign economies that are propped up on stealing from American seniorsrdquo ldquoAmerica is not a pile of treasure for other countries and other people and other scammers all around the world to loot for themselvesrdquo he saidOlder Americans were described as the main targets ldquoWhen you get into what is going on the elderly population over 60 as just in 2025 through cybercrimes lost 77 billion in their incomerdquo Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said ldquoThatrsquos retirements that are completely wiped awayrdquoMiller described the ldquograndparent scamrdquo ldquoYour grandmother your grandfather your parents they get a phone call saying a loved one has been arrested wired 10000 right away to get them out of jail except nobody was arrested nobodyrsquos in jail and the money goes to a foreign scam centrerdquo he saidldquoWe want to protect our seniors because the seniors almost more than anybody are really victims of what wersquore talking about todayrdquo Trump said He advised victims to ldquoseek out help from trusted family membersrdquoMullin also detailed action against online child exploitation ldquoUnderneath Secret Service alone they have recovered 14600 child abuse videos as the First Lady has so eloquently said take it down and over 35600 imagesrdquo he saidHe highlighted the Homeland Security Investigations campaign ldquoKnow to Protectrdquo which he said was ldquoeducating families on how to protect themselves from digital extortionrdquoldquoBehind every statistic is a human liferdquo Mullin saidTrump said the administration was ldquoaggressively confronting the sexual extortion rackets that have wrecked the lives of too many young people and in some cases even tragically led victims to take their own livesrdquo He credited First Lady Melania Trump ldquowho led a successful bipartisan effort to pass the Take It Down ActrdquoAttorney General Todd Blanche said ldquoWersquore also meeting the serious threat of sextortion headonrdquoldquoBy taking on these cyber criminals on offence and defence we watch out for our warriors we watch out for American citizens and we secure the homelandrdquo Hegseth saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever