574 Arrested, $3 Million Seized in Crackdown on African Cybercrime Rings

Authorities in Senegal, Ghana, Benin, and Cameroon dismantled BEC, ransomware, and other cyber-fraud networks.

Authorities in Africa made 574 arrests and recovered $3 million in a major crackdown on multiple cybercrime networks, Interpol announced.

As part of Operation Sentinel, law enforcement in 19 African countries dismantled business email compromise (BEC), ransomware, extortion, and other cyber-fraud rings that caused financial losses of more than $21 million.

In Senegal, a sophisticated BEC scheme was blocked before a $7.9 million illicit transfer was cashed out.

The fraudsters compromised a major petroleum company’s internal email systems and impersonated leadership to authorize the transfer, but the destination accounts were frozen before the funds could be withdrawn.

In Ghana, a financial institution’s critical services were disrupted by a ransomware attack that also resulted in the theft of $120,000.

The hackers encrypted 100 TB of data, 30 TB of which was decrypted after ...