19.05.2026
4 min
191
INTERPOL has announced the results of its international operation Ramz, which led to the arrest of more than 200 people linked to cybercrime in the Middle East and North Africa region. The raids also seized dozens of servers used for phishing, malware and online fraud.
More than 200 people were detained by law enforcement in connection with crimes related to cybercrime under Interpol’s “Operation Rams,” which targeted the Middle East and North Africa.
The efforts of law enforcement also uncovered an additional 382 suspects in 13 countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates).
Interpol stated that along with the detentions of the above individuals, law enforcement authorities confiscated 53 servers which were being utilized for phishing, malware and fraudulent online activities. The servers reportedly caused at least 3,867 confirmed victim(s) and nearly 8,000 intelligence packages were obtained from the confiscated equipment.
The international law enforcement agency known as INTERPOL has formed partnerships with some private companies that specialize in cybersecurity, such as Kaspersky, Group-IB, The ShadowServer Foundation, Team Cymru and Trend AI, to identify and locate illicit (illegal) use of technology.
Operation Ramz was also a large-scale cybersecurity operation. Some of the notable accomplishments included:
protecting computers compromised by malicious software from being used to send malicious software in Qatar without the knowledge of the computer user,
disrupting a criminal organization involved in financial fraud in Jordan that had 15 people from Asia who had been trafficked into slavery forced to operate scams,
shutting down a server in Oman using a type of malicious software called malware that contained sensitive information,
shutdown of a phishing-as-a-service platform in Algeria with the arrest of at least one person,
seizure of bank account information and computers related to phishing activity in Morocco and investigations are underway against multiple suspects.
Operation Ramz is the third major cybersecurity operation conducted by INTERPOL so far this year. In late-March, “Operation Synergy III” was completed and it involved authorities announcing they had taken control of over 45,000 malicious internet protocol addresses, seized 212 devices or servers and apprehended 94 people in 72 countries for committing crimes of phishing, hacking, financial fraud and distributing malware.
Before that, in early February, INTERPOL reported that it had arrested 651 people across 16 African countries as part of its Operation Red Card 2.0, to combat investment fraud, mobile money fraud and phony mobile applications for credit that caused losses exceeding $45 million.
