Africa cybercrime crackdown includes hundreds of arrests, Interpol says

Authorities in several African countries have arrested 260 people in a coordinated operation targeting online fraud schemes, the international police agency Interpol said on Friday.

The crackdown focused on transnational criminal networks that used social media and other digital platforms to run romance and sextortion scams. Police identified more than 1,460 victims who collectively lost an estimated $2.8 million.

Interpol said officers dismantled online infrastructures linked to the scams and seized more than 1,200 electronic devices, including USB drives and SIM cards.

“Cybercrime units across Africa are reporting a sharp rise in digital-enabled crimes such as sextortion and romance scams,” said Cyril Gout, Interpol’s acting executive director of police services.

“The growth of online platforms has opened new opportunities for criminal networks to exploit victims, causing both financial loss and psychological harm,” he added. 

Ghana reported the highest number of arrests, detaining 68 suspects and seizing 835 devices. Police there said victims lost about $450,000, of which $70,000 has been recovered. Offenders used fake courier charges and forged identities to extract payments, while in sextortion cases they secretly recorded intimate chats to blackmail victims.

In Senegal, police arrested 22 suspects accused of impersonating celebrities on dating platforms to defraud 120 victims of roughly $34,000. In Côte d’Ivoire, 24 people were detained and nearly 810 victims identified in a sextortion scheme based on fake online profiles. Angola arrested eight suspects tied to 28 cases involving both domestic and international victims.

Interpol said the operation builds on earlier crackdowns, including one in April 2024 in Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire that dismantled a phishing scheme responsible for more than $1.4 million in losses to Swiss citizens. Interpol’s HAECHI — a separate, long-running operation against fraud syndicates — continues to rack up arrests and recover stolen funds. 

The agency has previously warned of a sharp rise in cybercrime across Africa, with sextortion, business email compromise, and ransomware among the most common threats. Law enforcement agencies surveyed by Interpol say they face major challenges in prosecuting cybercrime, citing gaps in legal frameworks and shortages of training and resources.