INTERPOL has arrested more than 200 people as part of Operation Ramz, a cybercrime crackdown focused on the Middle East and North Africa.
The operation also helped law enforcement identify 382 additional suspects across 13 countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia, and the UAE.
Authorities also seized 53 servers used in phishing, malware, and online fraud operations. According to INTERPOL, the seized infrastructure affected at least 3,867 confirmed victims. Investigators reached that number after analyzing nearly 8,000 intelligence packages recovered from the equipment.
INTERPOL said the operation aimed to disrupt phishing and malware threats, as well as cyber scams that have caused major damage across the region.
The international police organization worked with several private cybersecurity firms to trace and take down malicious infrastructure. These partners included Kaspersky, Group-IB, The Shadowserver Foundation, Team Cymru, and TrendAI.
Operation Ramz led to several major actions across the region. In Qatar, authorities secured compromised devices that had been unknowingly used to spread malware. In Jordan, law enforcement dismantled an investment scam operation where 15 trafficked workers from Asia were allegedly forced to run fraud schemes, and two organizers were arrested.
In Oman, officials disabled a vulnerable malware-infected server that contained sensitive data. In Algeria, authorities shut down a phishing-as-a-service platform and arrested one suspect. In Morocco, investigators seized devices and banking data connected to phishing operations, with several suspects now under judicial investigation.
Operation Ramz is the third major cybercrime crackdown INTERPOL has announced this year.
In March, INTERPOL revealed the results of Operation Synergia III, which led to the sinkholing of 45,000 malicious IP addresses, the seizure of 212 devices and servers, and the arrest of 94 people across 72 countries for involvement in phishing, hacking, fraud, and malware distribution.
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Before that, in February, INTERPOL announced the arrest of 651 suspects across 16 African countries under Operation Red Card 2.0. That operation targeted investment fraud, mobile money scams, and fake loan apps linked to losses exceeding $45 million.
