An international operation against cybercrime, conducted between November and February, led to the arrest of over 300 people in seven African countries and the seizure of nearly 2,000 electronic devices, Interpol announced on Monday.
Named « Red Card, » the operation targeted scams related to mobile banking services, fraudulent investments, and messaging apps, according to a statement from the international police cooperation organization based in Lyon.
Over the course of four months, authorities from the following countries, Benin, Nigeria, Rwanda, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, and Zambia arrested 306 suspects and seized 1,842 devices. These actions revealed scams affecting more than 5,000 victims.
In Nigeria, the police arrested 130 people, including 113 foreign nationals, mainly accused of fraud related to online casinos and investments. Interpol stated that the suspects, who were converting their earnings into digital assets to cover their tracks, were recruited from various countries to carry out these illegal operations, often in multiple languages. Some of them could be victims of human trafficking, coerced into engaging in these criminal activities.
In South Africa, over 1,000 SIM cards, around fifty desktop computers, and relay antennas were seized. These items were linked to a complex « SIM box » fraud scheme, where criminals conduct large-scale SMS phishing attacks by converting international calls into local calls. Forty people were arrested.
In Rwanda, authorities dismantled a network of 45 individuals who posed as telecommunications employees or relatives of injured people in order to extract sensitive information and gain access to their victims’ bank accounts.