In a major announcement on Friday, Interpol revealed that more than 1,200 suspects had been arrested and close to $100 million recovered in a large scale cybercrime operation across Africa.
The operation, tagged “Serengeti 2.0,” was carried out between June and August this year with support from the United Kingdom and 18 African nations.
Investigators discovered some 88,000 victims of online fraud and illegal cryptocurrency schemes, showing the growing digital threat growing across the continent. According to Interpol, online fraud has boosted by as much as 3,000 percent in certain parts of Africa over the past year.
The report further showed that cybercrime now accounts for over 30 percent of all reported offenses in both West and East Africa. In Angola, authorities disabled 25 cryptocurrency mining centers illegally operated by Chinese citezens, seizing equipments worth at around $37 million.
