Authorities in seven African countries arrested 306 suspects and seized 1,842 devices in the Interpol-led Operation Red Card. It targets cyberattacks and fraud in the financial sectors, including online casinos and fake investments.
The goal of the operation «Red Card» (November 2024 – February 2025) is to identify and dismantle cross-border criminal networks that harm individuals and businesses via mobile banking, investment, and messenger fraud.
The countries involved in the operation were Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo and Zambia. The cyber fraud involved more than 5,000 victims.
Operation highlights:
- Nigerian police arrested 130 people, including 113 foreign nationals, for alleged involvement in online casino and investment fraud. To cover their tracks, the suspects transferred proceeds into digital assets. Twenty-six cars, 16 homes, 39 plots of land, and 685 devices were seized.
- In South Africa, authorities arrested 40 people and seized more than 1,000 SIM cards, as well as 53 desktop computers and towers that were used to conduct large-scale SMS phishing attacks.
- In Zambia, police detained 14 alleged members of a crime syndicate who hacked victims’ phones using phishing links by installing software that hijacked messaging and banking apps. The attackers also distributed those links via hacked accounts, expanding the scope of the fraud.
- Rwandan authorities arrested 45 members of the criminal network for their involvement in a social engineering fraud that defrauded victims of more than $305,000 in 2024. Of the stolen funds, $103,043 was recovered and 292 devices were seized.
“The success of Operation Red Card demonstrates the power of international cooperation in combating cybercrime, which knows no borders and can have devastating effects on individuals and communities. The recovery of significant assets and devices, as well as the arrest of key suspects, sends a strong message to cybercriminals that their activities will not go unpunished.” – said Neal Jetton, director of Interpol’s Cybercrime Directorate.
As part of the operation, countries shared data on priority targets. Interpol also received data from private sector partners Group-IB, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro.
Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab said it had given Interpol the results of its analysis of a malicious Android app targeting users in the African region, as well as information on the infrastructure used for the attacks.
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