PARIS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- More than 20,000 people have been arrested in recent months around the world in an operation coordinated by Interpol to fight scams over the phone and the Internet, the France-based International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) said on Wednesday.

This large-scale operation, codenamed First Light, saw "10,380 locations raided, 21,549 operators, fraudsters and money launderers arrested, 310 bank accounts frozen and 153,973,709 U.S. dollars worth of illicit funds intercepted," Interpol said in a press release.

The results underscored the transnational nature of many telephone and online scams, where perpetrators often operate from a different country or even continent than their victims, it added.

Interpol also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has seen telecommunications and social engineering frauds multiply.

"Operation First Light has achieved remarkable success in the past year yet. Going forward, a much broader global coalition of law enforcement, facilitated by Interpol, will be needed to combat these threats," said Duan Daqi, head of the Interpol National Central Bureau in Beijing.

A total of 35 countries and regions participated in First Light and the latest phase of the operation was supported by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, said Interpol.