Scam in heritage, illegal cryptocurrency mining: a large draft against cybercrime in Africa led to 1209 arrests and almost 100 million dollars recovered, Interpol said on Friday.
The operation, called “Serengeti 2.0”, carried out between June and August, involved 18 countries in Africa and the United Kingdom, and was coordinated by the international criminal police organization, she said in a statement.
In total, nearly 88,000 victims were identified, $ 97.4 million recovered and 11,432 dismantled malware.
Among the resolved cases, the Angolan authorities have closed 25 cryptocurrency mining centers, in which Chinese operators illegally validated transactions on the blockchain.
Confiscked equipment in Angola is estimated at $ 37 million, a sum that the country’s government wishes to use to finance the distribution of electricity in certain areas, reports Interpol.
In Zambia, investigators attacked an online scam in investment, identifying 65,000 victims who lost a total of $ 300 million.
An operation in Côte d’Ivoire has shown that “one of the oldest online fraud”, the scams linked to inheritances, continues to bring big to criminal organizations.
The victims were encouraged to pay fees to claim false inheritances, with total damage estimated at 1.6 million dollars.
The Ivorian police have notably arrested the main suspect in this transnational scam and operated on major seizures, including electronic equipment, liquid money and vehicles.