SOME 260 suspected cyber scammers have been arrested in a sting operation carried out across 14 African countries.
The operation, co-ordinated by Interpol and funded by the UK, targeted criminal networks using social media and digital platforms to extract money from victims in romance scams, and in so-called “sextortion”, in which victims are blackmailed using explicit imagery.
“It doesn’t take long before you develop a connection with somebody… and very quickly this trust is shattered,” Interpol’s director of cybercrime Neal Jetton told the BBC’s Newsday programme, describing the perpetrators’ tactics.
More than 1,400 victims across Ghana, Kenya, Angola and elsewhere were identified.
Interpol estimates the victims lost a combined total of almost $2.8m (£2.1m).
People of various different ages fell foul of the scammers, Jetton added, but “typically a lot these scams do affect older people”.
During the crackdown which was carried out between July and August, police identified IP addresses, digital infrastructure, domains and social media profiles linked to members of the scam syndicates.
These leads and the subsequent arrests also resulted in the seizure of USB drives, Sim cards and forged documents, as well as the taking-down of 81 cyber-crime groups across Africa, Interpol said.
The global police network said it was committed to “disrupting and dismantling the groups that prey on vulnerable individuals online”.
“Cyber-crime units across Africa are reporting a sharp rise in digital-enabled crimes such as sextortion and romance scams,” said Cyril Gout, the acting executive director of police services at Interpol.
He said the growth of online platforms had opened new opportunities for criminal networks to exploit victims “causing both financial loss and psychological harm”.
About 68 suspects were arrested in Ghana, where authorities seized 835 devices and identified 108 victims during the operation. Investigators there recovered $70,000 from the estimated $450,000 in financial losses.
Scammers in Ghana extracted payments using a range of schemes, including fake courier and customs shipment fees. They secretly recorded intimate videos during explicit chats and used them to blackmail people.
In Senegal, police arrested 22 suspects and uncovered a network that impersonated celebrities and used emotional manipulation on social media and dating platforms to defraud 120 victims of approximately $34,000.
A total of 65 devices, forged identification documents and money transfer records were seized during the operation there.
And in Ivory Coast, police arrested 24 suspects, seized 29 devices and identified 809 victims. Scammers used fake profiles online to blackmail victims, demanding payments to prevent public exposure.
Eight suspects were arrested in Angola where authorities identified 28 domestic and international victims, primarily targeted via social media. Scammers used fraudulent documents to create fake identities, facilitating financial transactions and concealing their real identities while engaging victims.
Other countries involved in the operation under the African Joint Operation against Cyber-crime project include Benin, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.
“Whenever we ask a country to rank your top cyber threat, without fail, it is always online scams. It is very difficult to combat these kinds of crimes – millions of people click on [phishing emails] per day,” Jetton told the BBC.