Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization acts to get police forces in different countries to work together to fight transnational crime.  After an Interpol coordinated operation known as Operation Red Card combining the forces of seven African countries, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigerian, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo and Zambia conducted between November 2024 and February 2025, 306 people were arrested on charges related to a variety of cybercrimes.  The initial investigation was also supported by a number of private cybersecurity companies including Kaspersky and Trend Micro.  Some of the scams of which those arrested are accused of perpetrating included scams in which victims were lured into downloading malware on their phones that gave the scammers control over their banking apps and family emergency and grandparent scams,   The cooperation and coordination of the various law enforcement agencies is a very positive development in the battle against scammers.

TIPS

While this is a tremendous development, the best place to look for a helping hand is still at the end of your own arm.  Many of the scams that the scammers are accused of started with luring people into clicking on malware infected links.  Along with utilizing security software and installing security patches and updates as soon as they are available, the best thing you can do to protect yourself is to never click on any link or provide personal information in response to an email or text message unless you have absolutely confirmed that it is true.

In regard to the family emergency or grandparent scam, this scam has gotten much worse due to scammers using AI to clone the voices of family members to make the scammers pleas seem legitimate.  The best thing you can do to protect yourself and your family from this type of scam is to have a code word known only to family members to use in the event of actual family members.

Finally, it is important to remember that whenever you get a phone call, email or text message, you can never be sure who is actually contacting you.  Trust me, you can’t trust anyone, so never respond to any such communication even if it appears to come from a trusted sources such as a governmental agency such as the IRS or a company with which you do business such as Netflix, until you have confirmed that it is legitimate.

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