US prosecutors say alleged Black Axe leaders ran long-running romance scams that used social media and dating sites to build trust with victims, then demanded money using a consistent “working in South Africa” story. When victims hesitated, the group allegedly threatened to leak sensitive photos to coerce payment, and moved funds through US bank accounts and business entities.
Mirage safely runs attacks like this one against your own team, so you find out what happens before a real adversary does.
There’s a romance scam script so common prosecutors called it out by name: the “working in South Africa” story. It starts on social media or a dating app, then VoIP calls to build trust. The script: “I’m in South Africa on a construction job, something happened with the crane, I urgently need money.” If you hesitate, the tone flips: “If you don’t send the money today, I’ll share your private photos with your family and online.” That’s sextortion, not love. Your move: if any online “partner” asks for money or threatens to leak photos, stop, screenshot everything, and report it to security or law enforcement, do not send a cent.
INTERPOL’s Operation Jackal IV (Nov 2025–Jun 2026) targeted the money-laundering backbone behind global online scams, leading to 58 arrests and 263 suspects linked to West African organized crime groups. Cases included romance/investment scams targeting retirees, a fake-investment call center tied…
Interpol said Operation Jackal IV arrested dozens and disrupted West Africa–linked criminal networks tied to scams and money laundering, including Black Axe. The cases described include a call-center “investment” scam, romance/investment scams targeting retirees, and sextortion of teenagers on…
U.S. prosecutors say five alleged leaders of Black Axe’s Cape Town group ran long-running online romance and “advance fee” scams that tricked U.S. victims into sending money. The scammers allegedly used fake identities to pose as love interests or trusted contacts, then pushed for payments using…
The bulletin describes real-world social engineering where staff were tricked into disclosing sensitive data or access. In one case, Revolut employees responded to fraudulent information requests sent from a real government-domain email account, exposing extensive customer records. Separately,…
Microsoft described two real-world campaigns: an invoice fraud blast impersonating executives to trick finance teams into ACH payments, and a passkey-themed helpdesk scam that steals or bypasses authentication to take over Microsoft cloud accounts. In the second campaign, victims are called or…
OpenAI says it disrupted a Cambodia-based scam network operating from Poipet that used ChatGPT to scale romance, investment, gambling, and law-enforcement impersonation scams. The group used messaging apps to build trust, then pressured victims to pay deposits, activation fees, or fake fines,…
