West Africa is gradually emerging as a hub for online scam centers, says Interpol.
The international police agency, in a recent report, highlighted a noticeable increase in online scam activities in regions such as the Middle East, West Africa, and Central America.
“Online scam centres have increasingly been observed in other regions, including the Middle East, West Africa – which could be developing into a new regional hub – and Central America,” said Interpol.
This observation echoes an earlier alert issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in April, which warned of the expansion of cybercrime syndicates into Africa and South America.
These scam operations are typically executed at scale by organized criminal networks, sometimes employing workers trafficked or coerced into working under abusive conditions.
Interpol noted that the majority of human trafficking operations remain concentrated in Asia, which is notorious for cybercrime activities.
“While approximately 90 percent of human trafficking facilitators were from Asia, 11 percent were from South America or Africa,” the report stated.
These conclusions were based on an analysis of five years of Interpol crime data related to human trafficking and other illicit activities.
Dismantling of Cybercrime Syndicates in Africa
Interpol has been actively collaborating with African authorities to dismantle cybercrime networks on the continent.
During Operation Red Card, conducted with seven African countries, 306 suspects were arrested, more than 1,800 devices were seized, and several organized cybercriminal groups in Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, and Rwanda were dismantled.
In a similar global crackdown, a sophisticated international scam network in Namibia was dismantled, with authorities seizing 163 computers and 350 mobile phones.
A recent Interpol report further revealed a 30% rise in cybercrime in West and East Africa, serving as a wake-up call for stronger collaboration, intelligence sharing, and proactive measures against this growing threat.
As cybercrime networks expand into new regions, coordinated global and regional actions remain vital to protecting communities and building resilient digital economies.
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