Authorities in the US say eight people have been arrested for their alleged roles in an Africa-based cyber conspiracy defrauding companies and citizens of millions of dollars. The Justice Department said five of the defendants – a Mexican, two Americans, a Ghanaian and a Nigerian – were arrested in the US.
The other three, two Ghanaians and a Nigerian, were arrested outside the US and are being held pending extradition. The arrests were made as part of the department’s efforts to fight schemes to intercept wire transfers from businesses and individuals.
According to the Acting Assistant Attorney-General, John Cronan, “The defendants allegedly unleashed a barrage of international fraud schemes that targeted US businesses and individuals, robbing them to the tune of approximately 15 million dollars”.
The indictments are part of Operation Keyboard Warrior, a recently announced effort coordinated by the US and international law enforcement agents to disrupt online fraud perpetrated from Africa.
The suspects reportedly committed series of intrusions into the servers and email systems of a Memphis-based real estate company in 2017, according to the indictment. The defendants were able to use spoofed email addresses and other techniques to identify large financial transactions and initiated fraudulent email correspondence with relevant business parties.
