2 weeks ago
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A massive sting operation has caught around 260 suspected romance scammers and blackmailers in a UK-funded operation across 14 African countries. The huge investigation, which was co-ordinated by Interpol and funded by Britain, targeted criminals using social media and the internet to trick victims into false romantic relationships and by perpetrating so-called "sextortion" - the practice of blackmailing someone once you have obtained an explicit image or video of them.
Interpol's director of cybercrime Neal Jetton told the BBC "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.
"It doesn't take long before you develop a connection with somebody... and very quickly this trust is shattered."
During the sting, known as Operation Contender 3.0, police identified IP addresses, digital infrastructures, 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 take down of 81 cybercrime infrastructures across Africa.
Investigators identified 1,463 victims linked to the scams, estimating their losses at more than £2 million.
Cyril Gout, Acting Executive Director of Police Services at Interpol, added: “Cybercrime units across Africa are reporting a sharp rise in digital-enabled crimes such as sextortion and romance scams. The growth of online platforms has opened new opportunities for criminal networks to exploit victims, causing both financial loss and psychological harm.
"By working closely with our member countries and private sector partners, we remain committed to disrupting and dismantling the groups that prey on vulnerable individuals online.”
Operation Contender 3.0 was funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), under the African Joint Operation against Cybercrime project.
Ghanaian authorities arrested 68 individuals, seized 835 devices and identified 108 victims. Their investigations revealed £334,000 in financial losses, with £52,000 recovered. For romance scams the suspects had used fake profiles, forged identities and stolen images to deceive victims. The scammers extracted payments using a range of schemes, including fake courier and customs shipment fees. In sextortion cases, offenders secretly recorded intimate videos during explicit chats and used them for blackmail.
In Senegal, police arrested 22 suspects, uncovering a network that impersonated celebrities and used emotional manipulation on social media and dating platforms to defraud 120 victims of approximately £25,000. A total of 65 devices, forged identification documents and money transfer records were seized during the operation.
Police in Cote d’Ivoire dismantled a cybercrime ring that created fake profiles online to manipulate vulnerable individuals into sharing intimate images. Once in possession of compromising material, the criminals blackmailed victims, demanding payments to prevent public exposure. Police arrested 24 suspects, seized 29 devices and identified 809 victims.
In Angola authorities arrested 8 individuals and identified 28 domestic and international victims, primarily targeted via social media. Offenders used fraudulent documents to create fake identities, facilitating financial transactions and concealing their real identities while engaging victims.
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