African Cyberthreat Assessment Report highlights the growing impact of AI on cybercrime.
AI was involved in some capacity in 55% of cybercrime cases reported by surveyed African countries in 2025, according to INTERPOL’s latest regional cyber threat assessment.
The report draws on responses from 36 of 49 African member countries, alongside operational intelligence, national incident reports and data provided by private cybersecurity companies. Respondents said AI was used occasionally in 47% of cases and frequently in 8% of cases.
INTERPOL said criminals are using AI to automate phishing, social engineering and extortion while creating convincing deepfakes and synthetic identities. The technology has also increased the sophistication of business email compromise, digital sextortion and identity fraud.
Reported cybercrime losses rose from $192 million in 2024 to $484 million in 2025, while the number of identified victims increased from 35,000 to 87,000. INTERPOL cautioned that national loss figures remain inconsistent because of underreporting and differences in reporting methods.
Online scams remained the most frequently reported form of cybercrime. Seventy-two percent of surveyed countries reported the presence of scam centres, with the highest concentrations identified in Southern and West Africa.
Law enforcement capacity has not developed at the same pace. Only 22% of surveyed digital forensic units reported having working knowledge of AI-enabled threats, while 8% of intelligence analysts had advanced AI expertise. A lack of technical skills was identified by 92% of agencies as the main obstacle to adopting AI tools.
Information-sharing problems present an additional challenge. Seventy-two percent of respondents reported slow data exchange among agencies, while eighty-nine percent identified cross-border cooperation as the most significant obstacle to successful investigations.
INTERPOL called for standardised digital forensic capabilities, stronger international cooperation, greater AI literacy among law enforcement officers and formal partnerships with banks, telecommunications providers and technology companies.
Four recent INTERPOL-coordinated operations led to more than 1,500 arrests, the seizure of hundreds of devices and the recovery of more than $100 million.
Why does it matter?
AI is reducing the skills and resources required to commit convincing fraud while enabling criminal operations to target more victims across multiple jurisdictions. Limited forensic capacity and slow information sharing could leave law enforcement increasingly disadvantaged as phishing, impersonation and extortion become faster and more automated.
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