{"id":95895,"date":"2025-09-26T11:17:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T11:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=95895"},"modified":"2025-09-26T11:17:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T11:17:21","slug":"68-suspected-scammers-busted-in-ghana-as-interpol-smashes-2-8m-cybercrime-rings-across-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=95895","title":{"rendered":"68 suspected scammers busted in Ghana as INTERPOL smashes $2.8m cybercrime rings across Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A major International Police (INTERPOL) operation across 14 African countries has led to the arrest of 260 suspected scammers, with Ghanaian authorities playing a pivotal role by apprehending 68 individuals and seizing a significant haul of evidence.<\/p>\n

According to an Interpol statement, the coordinated crackdown, dubbed Operation Contender 3.0, targeted criminal networks exploiting social media and dating platforms to carry out romance scams and sextortion, causing an estimated $2.8 million in losses to 1,463 identified victims globally.<\/p>\n

During the operation, 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 takedown of 81 cybercrime infrastructures across Africa.<\/p>\n

Ghana travel guide<\/p>\n

The operation, which ran from July 28 to August 11, 2025 and was funded by the United Kingdom\u2019s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, resulted in the seizure of 1,235 electronic devices continent-wide.<\/p>\n

Ghana\u2019s contribution was particularly substantial, with police confiscating 835 devices, identifying 108 victims, and uncovering financial losses totalling $450,000, of which $70,000 has already been recovered.<\/p>\n

Ghana travel guide<\/p>\n

\u201cGhanaian authorities arrested 68 individuals, seized 835 devices and identified 108 victims. Their investigations revealed USD 450,000 in financial losses, with USD 70,000 recovered,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to INTERPOL, investigations in Ghana revealed that suspects \u201cused fake profiles, forged identities and stolen images to deceive victims,\u201d often extracting payments through elaborate schemes involving \u201cfake courier and customs shipment fees.\u201d<\/p>\n

In cases of sextortion, offenders were found to have secretly recorded intimate videos during explicit online chats to blackmail their targets.<\/p>\n

Cyril Gout, Acting Executive Director of Police Services at INTERPOL, highlighted the growing threat, stating, \u201cCybercrime 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.\u201d He emphasised that collaboration between INTERPOL, its member countries, and private sector partners like Group-IB and Trend Micro was crucial to the operation\u2019s success, enabling enhanced data sharing and swift enforcement actions that led to the takedown of 81 cybercrime infrastructures.<\/p>\n

Ghana travel guide<\/p>\n

The operation revealed varied modus operandi across the participating nations. In Senegal, police arrested 22 suspects who impersonated celebrities to emotionally manipulate 120 victims out of approximately $34,000. Authorities in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire dismantled a ring that blackmailed individuals after tricking them into sharing intimate images, resulting in 24 arrests and the identification of 809 victims.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Angola, eight individuals were apprehended for using social media and fraudulent documents to create fake identities to target victims.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"68A major International Police (INTERPOL) operation across 14 African countries has led to the arrest of 260 suspected scammers, with Ghanaian authorities playing a pivotal role by apprehending 68 individuals and seizing a significant haul of evidence. According to an Interpol statement, the coordinated crackdown, dubbed Operation Contender 3.0, targeted criminal networks exploiting social media [\u2026]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2912,536,1906,1849,1883,117,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cybercrime","category-ghana","category-hp-news-5","category-interpol","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}