More than 570 cybercriminals were arrested as part of a sweeping international operation aimed at stopping online fraud operations.
Interpol’s Operation Sentinel, part of its African Joint Operation Against Cybercrime, focused on cybercrime that involved business email compromise, digital extortion and ransomware.
Business email compromise is a technique that uses the identity of a trusted figure, such as a company officer, to trick employees into providing money or revealing corporate secrets. Digital extortion and ransomware are similar methods of stealing personal information or locking down a computer system and then demanding money from the victim to regain access.
The monthlong investigation in late 2025 recovered $3 million in stolen funds, shut down 6,000 malicious links and decrypted six distinct ransomware programs.
In one scam, fraudsters targeted a Senegalese petroleum company with a business email compromise attack. Attackers used the company’s internal email system, impersonating company executives to authorize fraudulent wire transfers totaling nearly $8 million.
Senegalese authorities stopped the transfers before the criminals could withdraw the funds, according to Interpol.
In Ghana, a ransomware attack against a financial institution encrypted 100 terabytes of data and stole approximately $120,000, disrupting critical services.
Using advanced malware analysis, Ghanaian authorities identified the ransomware software and developed a decryption tool that recovered nearly 30 terabytes of data.
Ghanaian authorities also helped to dismantle a major cyber fraud network operating across their country and Nigeria that stole more than $400,000 from more than 200victims.
Scammers used professionally designed websites and mobile apps to mimic well-known fast-food brands, collecting payments but never delivering orders. Authorities arrested 10 people in Ghana, confiscated more than 100 digital devices and took 30 fraudulent servers offline.
In Benin, authorities took down 43 malicious domains and 4,318 social media accounts linked to extortion schemes and scams, leading to 106 arrests.
Operation Sentinel was the latest takedown of cybercriminals across Africa. In August, Operation Serengeti 2.0 arrested more than 1,200 suspects, confiscated more than $97 million stolen from victims and shut down 25 cryptocurrency mining centers allegedly run by 60 Chinese nationals in Angola.
“The scale and sophistication of cyberattacks across Africa are accelerating, especially against critical sectors like finance and energy,” Neal Jetton, Interpol’s director of cybercrime, said.
As internet access expands rapidly across Africa — largely through mobile phone networks — cybersecurity and education continue to lag, leaving people and companies vulnerable to cybercriminals.
Countries with the largest online populations, including South Africa and Egypt, tend to suffer the highest number of cybercrime events. Security experts estimate that cybercrime accounts for 30% of all crime in West and East Africa.
Nigeria, in particular, has become a hotbed for internet fraud operations.
Among the region’s cybercriminals are so-called Yahoo Boys — teenagers trained by cybercrime operators to carry out online scams, often using social media platforms such as WhatsApp.
Jetton praised the 19 African nations that collaborated with Interpol to break up cybercrime operations across the continent.
“The outcomes from Operation Sentinel reflect the commitment of African law enforcement agencies, working in close coordination with international partners,” Jetton said. “Their actions have successfully protected livelihoods, secured sensitive personal data and preserved critical infrastructure.”
