INTERPOL cybercrime report says AI drives 55% of cybercrime in Africa
Artificial intelligence now plays a role in 55 percent of reported cybercrime across Africa, according to the INTERPOL African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026, which paints a picture of criminal networks using automation to expand fraud, ransomware, phishing and identity theft across the continent.
The assessment, published on August 3, draws on data from 36 African member countries and says cybercrime has developed into a coordinated cross-border business that is becoming harder for financial institutions, telecom operators and law enforcement agencies to disrupt.
The report arrives as Africa’s digital economy continues to grow. More than 1.1 billion mobile subscriptions were recorded across the continent in 2025, bringing millions more people into digital financial services, online commerce and connected platforms. That growth has created new opportunities for businesses and consumers, but it has also expanded the pool of potential victims for organized cybercriminal groups.
INTERPOL says cybercrime is no longer defined by isolated attacks carried out by individual hackers. Criminal groups now operate across multiple jurisdictions, using cloud infrastructure, stolen data, automated tools and artificial intelligence to conduct campaigns that target both businesses and consumers.
The financial impact reflects that change. According to the report, cybercrime-related losses across Africa have climbed from USD 192 million in 2024 to USD 484 million since then, with AI-assisted scams, credential theft and automated social engineering accounting for much of the increase.
Online scams remained the most commonly reported form of cybercrime during 2025. Attackers continued to exploit social media platforms, messaging applications and mobile money services to reach victims at scale. INTERPOL also found that 72 percent of surveyed countries reported the presence of scam centres, with Southern and West Africa recording the highest concentration.
For Kenya and the wider East African region, one of the report’s most relevant findings is the identification of East Africa as a centre for mobile money fraud and infrastructure-targeted ransomware.
The observation reflects the region’s heavy reliance on digital payments, where millions of people use mobile money for daily transactions, savings and credit. Criminal groups have followed that adoption by developing schemes that combine phishing messages, account takeovers, SIM registration fraud and social engineering to gain access to customer accounts.
Ransomware also remains a concern for public institutions and private organizations that depend on digital infrastructure. Rather than targeting individual users alone, attackers are seeking larger payouts by disrupting essential services and business operations.
The report argues that artificial intelligence is affecting nearly every stage of a cyberattack. Criminals can collect publicly available information about potential victims within minutes, generate convincing phishing emails in multiple languages and produce fake customer support conversations that are difficult to distinguish from legitimate interactions.
Business Email Compromise attacks have also become more sophisticated. AI tools allow criminals to imitate writing styles, corporate language and email formatting with a level of accuracy that makes fraudulent payment requests harder to detect. According to INTERPOL, Africa-based threat actors have used infrastructure spread across several jurisdictions to target organizations in Europe and North America.
Deepfake technology has become another area of concern. The report links AI-generated images, voices and videos to cases of digital sextortion and online harassment. Data contributed by cybersecurity partner TrendAI recorded around 600,000 detections related to sextortion activity.
One of the report’s strongest warnings focuses on synthetic identities. Rather than relying only on stolen credentials, criminals are combining genuine personal information with fabricated names, documents and AI-generated biometric characteristics to create identities that appear authentic during digital verification.
INTERPOL says these synthetic identities have been used to open bank accounts, apply for mobile loans and register SIM cards under false identities. The report also notes that weak real-time information sharing between banks, telecom operators and law enforcement agencies gives organized criminal groups opportunities to exploit gaps between institutions.
As financial services continue to digitize across Africa, the ability to detect fabricated identities is becoming just as important as protecting existing customer credentials.
While the report highlights serious challenges, it also points to progress. During 2025, 17 African countries enacted or updated cybercrime legislation, strengthening legal frameworks for investigating digital offences.
Operational cooperation also produced measurable results. INTERPOL says four coordinated operations—Operation Serengeti 2.0, Operation Contender 3.0, Operation Sentinel and Operation Red Card 2.0—led to more than 1,500 arrests, the seizure of hundreds of electronic devices and the recovery of over USD 100 million linked to cybercrime investigations.
Looking ahead, the organization recommends expanding digital forensic capabilities, improving intelligence sharing across borders, strengthening partnerships between governments and private-sector organizations, and investing in AI training for investigators. Those recommendations reflect a practical reality: as cybercriminal groups adopt more advanced technology, the institutions responsible for protecting digital ecosystems will need stronger technical capabilities and closer cooperation to keep pace.
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