YouTubers Detail How They Took Down an International Scam Ring

Ashton Bingham and Art Kulik -- the YouTubers behind the wildly successful Trilogy Media channel -- are patting themselves on the back for the role they played in taking down an international scam ring.

We caught up with the internet sensations on "TMZ Live" Friday, where they detailed how their "scam-baiting" stunt escalated to a full-blown investigation ... and how the IRL sting operation inspired real change on a federal level.

Watch the video ... Ashton and Art beam as they proudly explain how their back-and-forth communication with some scammers caused the culprits in question to accidentally make themselves vulnerable -- essentially exposing their identities.

Ashton says they were intentionally difficult, as scammers tried to remotely access their funds ... the criminals eventually asked AB and AK to send their money to an address in the U.S.

From there, the YouTubers followed the money ... eventually confronting the recipient, leading to some big discoveries, enough to testify in front of a grand jury.

Still, as the duo told us Friday, it took them half a decade to get to this place ... and to get multiple federal agencies to get on the same page to arrest these scammers in "real time."