Artificial intelligence is now linked to 55% of reported cybercrime across Africa, accelerating attacks, expanding their scale and making them increasingly difficult for victims and digital platforms to detect, according to INTERPOL. 

The findings from the INTERPOL’s 2026 African Cyberthreat Assessment Report comes as Africa’s digital economy expands rapidly, increasing the number of people, businesses and public services exposed to technology-enabled crime. 

The assessment describes a cybercrime ecosystem that is becoming increasingly organised, borderless and technology-driven, with criminals combining artificial intelligence, synthetic identities and sophisticated social-engineering techniques.

The 2026 assessment forms part of INTERPOL’s African Joint Operation against Cybercrime (AFJOC), supported by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. It draws on intelligence from African law enforcement agencies and cybersecurity partners to track the changing threat landscape.

The findings point to a shift from relatively isolated cyber incidents towards an increasingly industrialised model in which criminal groups use technology to automate operations, reach more victims and reduce the cost of executing attacks.

Online scams remained the most frequently reported form of cybercrime across Africa in 2025, with criminals increasingly exploiting mobile money platforms, social media and generative AI to target victims. According to the assessment, reported financial losses increased from $192 million in 2024 to $484 million, driven by AI-enabled scams, credential harvesting and automated social-engineering campaigns.

Interpol: AI scales Africa’s cybercrime problem

Online scams remained the most frequently reported form of cybercrime across Africa in 2025, with criminals increasingly exploiting mobile money platforms, social media and generative AI to target victims.

According to the assessment, reported financial losses increased from $192 million in 2024 to $484 million, driven by AI-enabled scams, credential harvesting and automated social-engineering campaigns.

The report also found that 72% of surveyed African countries reported the presence of scam centres, with particularly high concentrations in Southern and West Africa.

The growing use of AI does not necessarily mean criminals are replacing established attack methods. Instead, the technology is making existing techniques more convincing, faster and easier to scale.

Phishing campaigns, for example, can be automated and personalised at a scale that would previously have required significant human effort. AI-generated text can also make fraudulent communications appear more authentic, while synthetic media can be used to impersonate individuals or create fabricated identities.

INTERPOL’s earlier Africa assessment similarly identified AI-driven fraud, synthetic media and cybercrime-as-a-service as emerging threats alongside ransomware, online scams, business email compromise and digital sextortion.

Neal Jetton, Director of INTERPOL’s Cybercrime Directorate, said AI was reshaping the entire cyberattack lifecycle.

“AI is automating every stage of a cyberattack from reconnaissance and phishing to extortion and evasion,” Jetton said.

He added that international cooperation remained critical to disrupting cybercriminal infrastructure.

Deepfakes and synthetic identities raise new risks

The assessment highlights the growing use of AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic media in digital sextortion and online harassment.

According to the report, TrendAI recorded approximately 600,000 sextortion detections, illustrating the scale at which technology is being used to facilitate online abuse.

AI-generated content is also making business email compromise more difficult to identify. Criminals can generate convincing correspondence, imitate communication styles and automate interactions with potential victims, increasing the credibility of fraudulent requests.

The threat is increasingly international. Africa-based cybercriminals are targeting organisations in Europe and North America while using infrastructure distributed across multiple jurisdictions, complicating investigations and enforcement.

For financial institutions and telecommunications companies, the development creates a new challenge beyond protecting passwords and credentials. Organisations must increasingly determine whether the person behind a digital identity is genuine, even where the identity appears to satisfy conventional verification requirements.

Synthetic identities challenge banks and telecoms

One of the more significant developments identified by the assessment is the growing use of AI-generated synthetic identities.

Criminals are combining legitimate personal information with fabricated details to create identities that can potentially evade traditional verification systems. Such identities can be used to open bank accounts, obtain loans and register SIM cards under false identities.

The problem is compounded by weak coordination between financial institutions, telecommunications operators and law enforcement agencies.

Where information about suspicious activity is not shared quickly across institutions, criminals can exploit gaps between systems and move from one platform to another before investigators or service providers can intervene.

For financial institutions and telecommunications companies, the development creates a new challenge beyond protecting passwords and credentials. Organisations must increasingly determine whether the person behind a digital identity is genuine, even where the identity appears to satisfy conventional verification requirements.

Africa’s cybercrime response under pressure

INTERPOL warned that fragmented cybercrime legislation and limited AI readiness among law enforcement agencies are leaving governments, businesses and consumers exposed to increasingly sophisticated attacks.

The challenge is particularly significant because cybercrime routinely crosses national borders while investigations and enforcement remain largely organised around national jurisdictions.

INTERPOL’s 2025 Africa assessment found that two-thirds of surveyed African member countries considered cyber-related offences to account for a medium-to-high proportion of all crime. It also identified significant gaps in law enforcement and prosecution capacity across the continent.

The organisation has consequently called for stronger cross-border intelligence sharing, expanded digital forensics capabilities, improved AI literacy among law enforcement officers and stronger public-private partnerships.

These measures are intended to help African authorities move from responding to individual incidents towards identifying and dismantling the infrastructure and networks behind cybercrime.

Despite the growing threat, INTERPOL says African countries are making progress in strengthening cyber resilience.

During 2025, 17 countries enacted or updated cybercrime legislation, while Senegal introduced an online reporting platform aimed at improving responses to online violations affecting children.

Multinational enforcement operations have also produced significant results. INTERPOL-coordinated Operation Serengeti 2.0, for example, resulted in 1,209 arrests across participating African countries and the recovery of $97.4 million, while authorities dismantled more than 11,000 malicious infrastructures.

The results demonstrate the value of combining law enforcement intelligence with private-sector expertise, particularly where cybercriminal infrastructure spans several countries.

The growing use of AI by cybercriminals also means that conventional cybersecurity measures alone may no longer be sufficient. Banks, telecommunications companies, technology platforms and government agencies will increasingly need to combine automated threat detection with real-time intelligence sharing and stronger identity verification. For Nigerian consumers, the implications are equally significant. AI-generated phishing messages, voice impersonation, deepfake content and fabricated identities can make fraudulent communications increasingly difficult to distinguish from legitimate interactions.

Nigeria faces growing exposure

The findings carry particular relevance for Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest and most digitally connected markets.

INTERPOL’s 2025 Africa assessment identified attacks against Nigerian public institutions, including the December 2024 breach of the National Bureau of Statistics, among incidents demonstrating the vulnerability of government systems.

Nigeria has strengthened its legal and institutional response through the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act and subsequent amendments, alongside its National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy.

However, the rapid adoption of digital financial services, mobile connectivity and online platforms means that cybersecurity capacity will need to expand at the same pace as digital adoption.

The growing use of AI by cybercriminals also means that conventional cybersecurity measures alone may no longer be sufficient. Banks, telecommunications companies, technology platforms and government agencies will increasingly need to combine automated threat detection with real-time intelligence sharing and stronger identity verification.

For Nigerian consumers, the implications are equally significant. AI-generated phishing messages, voice impersonation, deepfake content and fabricated identities can make fraudulent communications increasingly difficult to distinguish from legitimate interactions.

The broader lesson from INTERPOL’s assessment is that Africa’s digital transformation is creating both economic opportunities and a rapidly expanding attack surface.

As more Africans move financial, commercial, government and social activities online, the ability to protect digital identities, financial systems and critical infrastructure will become an increasingly important component of economic resilience.

INTERPOL’s message is therefore not simply that AI is making cybercrime more sophisticated. It is that the technology is changing the economics of cybercrime by allowing criminal networks to automate, personalise and scale attacks across borders.

For African governments, businesses and law enforcement agencies, the response will increasingly depend on whether cybersecurity capabilities can evolve as quickly as the technologies being used by attackers.