Over 1,000 arrests in major anti-cybercrime campaign in Africa

Law enforcement agencies in Africa have arrested 1,006 individuals for being involved in cybercriminal activities.

The arrests were part of Operation Serengeti, a campaign designed to disrupt cybercrime networks across Africa. The operation was set up by Interpol and Afripol.

During this campaign, which ran from September 2 to October 31, 19 African countries and 7 partners from the private sector participated. In total, they arrested 1,006 cybercrime suspects and dismantled 134,089 malicious infrastructures and networks.

The suspects are being accused of being responsible for carrying out ransomware attacks, business email compromise (BEC), digital extortion, and online scams. These criminal activities impacted over 35,000 victims worldwide, causing approximately $193 million in damages.

In Kenya, police officers cracked a case of online credit card fraud linked to losses of $8.6 million. The suspects used fraudulent scripts to steal funds, which in turn alerted the banking system’s security protocol.

In another case, law enforcement officers arrested 8 people in Senegal for pulling off a $6 million online Ponzi scheme, affecting 1,811 victims. When searching the suspects’ apartment, officers uncovered 900 SIM cards, $11,000 in cash, phones, laptops, and copies of victims’ ID cards.

“From multi-level marketing scams to credit card fraud on an industrial scale, the increasing volume and sophistication of cybercrime attacks is of serious concern. Operation Serengeti shows what we can achieve by working together, and these arrests alone will save countless potential future victims from real personal and financial pain. We know that this is just the tip of the iceberg, which is why we will continue targeting these criminal groups worldwide,” Secretary General of Interpol Valdecy Urquiza said in a statement.

Afripol’s Executive Director Jalel Chelba concurs with Urquiza and states that Afripol was able to make several key arrests during Operation Serengeti. He now tends to set his sights on emerging threats, such as artificial intelligence (AI) driven malware and advanced attack techniques.

Law enforcement agencies from Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe participated in Operation Serengeti.

From the private sector, Cybercrime Atlas, Fortinet, Group-IB, Kaspersky, Team Cymru, Trend Micro, and Uppsala Security provided assistance during the campaign.