Ofure Akhigbe
When 32-year-old Ama from Accra thought she had finally found love through a Facebook connection, she had no idea the man she was confiding in was part of a sprawling cybercrime network. By the time the lies unraveled, she had lost her savings — and much of her trust in people.
Ama is just one of nearly 1,500 victims identified in Operation Contender 3.0, a two-week crackdown that swept across 14 African countries between July 28 and August 11, 2025. Coordinated by Interpol, the operation led to the arrest of 260 suspects accused of running romance scams and sextortion schemes that spanned borders and preyed on the most intimate aspects of people’s lives.
Police seized more than 1,200 electronic devices and shut down 81 online crime infrastructures. Losses linked to the schemes were estimated at $2.8 million. Behind those numbers are countless victims who were either deceived into sending money to false lovers or blackmailed with compromising images and videos.
Ghana emerged as one of the hardest-hit countries. Authorities there arrested 68 suspects, recovered $70,000, and identified 108 victims. In Senegal, 22 suspects allegedly posed as celebrities to lure in 120 victims, while in Côte d’Ivoire, police dismantled a sextortion ring linked to more than 800 cases — one of the largest such networks uncovered on the continent.
“The growth of online platforms has opened new opportunities for criminal networks to exploit victims, causing both financial loss and psychological harm,” said Cyril Gout, Interpol’s acting executive director of police services, in a statement on September 24.
Private cybersecurity firm Group-IB, which provided intelligence support, said its data helped investigators trace the money trails and online identities that fueled the cybercrimes. Ghanaian police, who confirmed seizing 835 devices, hailed the arrests as a breakthrough in a country long grappling with the shadow of internet fraud.
This latest sweep builds on Operation Serengeti 2.0, another Interpol-led effort in August that resulted in more than 1,200 arrests across Africa. Together, the two operations suggest a mounting global push against the online exploitation that has destroyed lives, not just through stolen money but also through humiliation and broken trust.
For Ama and thousands of others, the arrests may bring a measure of justice, but the scars — financial, emotional, and deeply personal — remain a reminder of how far cybercriminals will go, and why the fight against cybercrime has only just begun.