Chinese Cyber Scam Bust Reveals Zambia’s Efforts to Disrupt Online Fraudsters

By ADF On May 7, 2024

A raid in Zambia revealed what authorities described as a sophisticated operation using high-tech equipment to reach victims across Africa as well as in countries including Peru, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates ZAMBIAN DRUG ENFORCEMENT COMMISSION

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Located in an upscale neighborhood of Lusaka, Zambia, Golden Top Support Services presented itself as a normal call center. In fact, it was a Chinese-owned cybercrime operation using WhatsApp, Telegram and other communication platforms to scam people out of their money.

Zambian authorities arrested more than 90 people in the scam — 77 when they raided the Golden Top’s offices early in April and another 17 on April 23. Among those arrested in the two incidents were 35 Chinese nationals along with 70 Zambian employees in their early 20s. Some of the Zambians were later released on bond. Vietnamese and Cameroonian nationals were also among those held in the raids.

Among the Chinese nationals in the second round of arrests, at least nine were in the country illegally, undocumented, or working illegally, according to Zambian authorities.

“We wish to warn foreign nationals who deliberately enter the country under false pretenses that they will be arrested, prosecuted, and deported from the country,” Department of Immigration spokesperson Namati Nshinka said during the announcement of the April 23 arrests.

Among the items seized in the raid on Golden Top were devices that masked the location of the call center’s outgoing calls, along with two firearms, 78 rounds of ammunition, 97 desktop computers, 42 unboxed computers, and over 13,000 SIM cards from Airtel, MTN and Vodafone. During the April 23 arrests, authorities seized nearly 100 more SIM cards, along with vehicles and more than $1,000 in cash.

Investigators also found 11 SIM boxes that let callers bypass phone networks. Authorities seized six properties connected to Golden Top, including a luxury home on a lake.

The victims of the Golden Top scam came from across Africa, but also included people in locations such as Peru, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

“Zambia is a peaceful country, and Zambians are welcoming to anyone who wants to do business with them. Bad actors take advantage of that,” cybersecurity researcher Ali Kingston Mwila wrote on LinkedIn following the first wave of arrests.

In recent years, Zambia has begun to crack down on cybercrime within its borders. The 2021 Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act No. 2 established a system for responding to cybercrime incidents and a council to guide cybercrime policy with the aim of protecting Zambian citizens and their data from scammers.

A 2023 study by researchers at Lusaka-based Liquid Intelligence Technologies found that cybercrime is on the rise in Zambia despite government efforts to rein it in.

As internet use has expanded across Zambia, so has cybercrime. That’s largely because Zambia’s new internet users lack the knowledge about potential scams to protect themselves, according to Researchers Gerry Mutibo Siampondo and Bwalya Chansa.

Writing in the Journal of Information Security, Siampondo and Chansa noted that government figures show more than 10 million cyberattacks targeted Zambian citizens and businesses in 2021. Those attacks generated 50,000 cybercrime investigations. By 2022, the number of investigations had doubled to 100,000.

“The escalation of reported cases indicates that cybercrime poses a mounting danger to Zambia,” the researchers wrote.

Zambia has responded to rising cybercrime by creating agencies such as the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority and the Zambia Police Service’s Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Unit. While those groups have made inroads against cybercriminals, the overall effort against cybercrime remains underfunded and understaffed, according to Siampondo and Chansa.

Zambia’s existing legal framework needs to be updated to address evolving cyber threats, according to the researchers.

“Through the cultivation of collaborations between public and private entities, the government can harness the expertise and technological advancements of the private sector to holistically enhance the nation’s cybersecurity resilience,” Siampondo and Chansa wrote in their report.

Mwenge Mulenga, spokesman for the Zambian Drug Enforcement Commission, said after the Golden Top raid that the government is dedicated to bringing cybercriminals to heel.

“We are out to get these criminals,” Mulenga said. “We shall not at all relent. There shall be no sacred cows.”