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Significant crackdown on cybercrime has lately seen Interpol and a consortium of seven African law enforcement agencies arrest over 300 individuals and seize almost 2,000 electronic devices.
Operation Red Card was conducted from November 2024 to February 2025 with the goal of “disrupting and dismantling cross-border criminal networks which cause significant harm to individuals and businesses,” according to the agency.
According to Interpol, over 5,000 people were victims, and in Rwanda alone, social engineering schemes resulted in the theft of over $305,000. The amount recovered was just over $100,000. Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo, and Zambia were all involved in the operation.
Help from cybersecurity experts
According to Interpol, the people were engaged in a variety of illegal activities.
They were operating schemes involving mobile banking, investments, online casinos, SIM box fraud and smishing, phone hacking using malware, impersonation, and more. They were using digital assets to launder the stolen funds.
Additionally, three cybersecurity organizations—Group-IB, Trend Micro, and Kaspersky—provided intelligence to Interpol.
The latter company claimed to have examined a sample of Android malware purportedly used to target African users and provided law enforcement with the results, along with information on associated infrastructure.
Interpol added Nigerian authorities established, “some of the people working in the scam centres may also be victims of human trafficking, forced or coerced into criminal activities.”
Police also seized 26 cars, 16 homes, 39 property parcels, and 685 gadgets as a result of the investigations. Whether the assets were bought with stolen funds is unknown.
“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”, commented Neal Jetton, INTERPOL’s Director of the Cybercrime Directorate.
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