African joint cybercrime operation by Interpol and Afripol nets 1,006 suspects

Some 1,005 suspected cybercriminals were arrested and malicious infrastructures and networks were dismantled across 19 African countries from early September to late October thanks to a joint operation by INTERPOL and AFRIPOL against cybercrime.
The operation, dubbed Operation Serengeti, which was conducted in collaboration with AFRIPOL, the African Union’s police agency, targeted criminals involved in ransomware, business email compromise schemes, digital extortion, and online fraud, INTERPOL stated in a press release on Tuesday (26 November). The arrests made during the successful two-month cybercrime crackdown across Africa included criminal capers from ransomware through to business email compromise (BEC) and other online offenses, including human trafficking cases, linked to more than $190 million in global losses and tens of thousands of victims.
The arrests are “just the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to organized cybercrime, said Valdecy Urquiza, INTERPOL’s secretary general, who stressed that the agency would “continue targeting these criminal groups worldwide.” In Kenya, officers cracked a case of online credit card fraud linked to losses of US$ 8.6 million. Meanwhile, eight individuals, including five Chinese nationals, were arrested in Senegal for a US$ 6 million online Ponzi scheme affecting 1,811 victims. In Nigeria, authorities arrested a man accused of running online investment scams by making false promises of cryptocurrency returns. Another case was uncovered in Cameroon where the authorities arrested a group suspected of trafficking victims from seven different countries to run a multi-level marketing scam.