Five men accused of leading a Black Axe cybercrime cell—Perry Osagiede, Franklyn Osagiede, Osariemen Clement, Collins Otughwor, and Musa Mudashiru—have been extradited from South Africa to the US to face wire fraud and money laundering charges. Prosecutors say the group ran romance scams and advance-fee schemes targeting American victims from Cape Town between 2011 and 2021, using fake identities, dating sites, and VoIP numbers, and blackmailing victims with threats to leak intimate photos when they resisted paying.
bleepingcomputer.com
· 2026-09-15
A dark web marketplace called Nexus emerged this week claiming to sell searchable access to over 150 million U.S. and Canadian driver's licenses and passports, with roughly half a million new records added daily. Security journalist Brian Krebs and researcher Zach Edwards traced the likely source to IDScan, a Louisiana-based identity verification firm used by major consumer brands to check tens of millions of IDs monthly. Both researchers confirmed their own personal documents appeared in the database, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's photo was also reportedly found among the listings.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-02
Adebola Festus Adekunle, 26, and Mudasiru Afeez Olawale, 24, were extradited from Nigeria to face U.S. charges tied to sextortion schemes that led to the deaths of two minors in Mississippi and North Carolina. Both men were arrested in Nigeria in August 2023 as part of 'Operation Artemis,' an international crackdown on sextortion rings targeting American minors, and now face charges including sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death, production of child sexual abuse material, and coercion of minors.
bleepingcomputer.com
· 2026-08-31
The European Commission unveiled a new internal security strategy called ProtectEU, framing rising cybercrime and terrorism threats as justification for developing 'technological solutions' to access encrypted communications. The plan avoids concrete legislative proposals for now, instead calling for a roadmap on lawful law enforcement access to encrypted data.
reclaimthenet.org
· 2026-08-30
Australian authorities have arrested two men in Perth accused of belonging to TeamPCP, a hacking group linked to widespread supply-chain attacks on open-source software. The pair face over a dozen charges including hacking, money laundering, and cybercrime offenses, with a court appearance scheduled for Thursday. The FBI says the group compromised more than a thousand organizations and stole over half a million credentials.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-27
The Australian Federal Police arrested two men, aged 21 and 23, from Western Australia over their alleged roles in TeamPCP, a group accused of running the longest-running spree of software supply chain attacks. TeamPCP is said to have poisoned hundreds of open-source packages using a self-propagating worm called Shai-Hulud, stealing developer credentials to spread malicious code further. KrebsOnSecurity reports it had identified the 21-year-old suspect months earlier and had been in contact with a person claiming to speak for the group.
krebsonsecurity.com
· 2026-08-27
Interpol conducted an eight-month operation, dubbed Jackal IV, from November 2025 to June 2026 targeting the global support networks enabling West African cybercrime syndicates like Black Axe. The effort spanned 22 countries across six continents, resulting in 58 arrests and the identification of 263 suspects linked to romance scams, crypto fraud, business email compromise, and violent crimes. In Argentina alone, authorities uncovered a crime-as-a-service network supplying domains and money laundering to these gangs, identifying about 200 people and arresting 17.
techspot.com
· 2026-08-25
Police from 22 countries collaborated to identify 263 suspects and arrest 58 people connected to West African cybercrime syndicates, including the Black Axe organization known for romance scams, crypto fraud and business email compromise schemes. Argentina, South Africa, Romania and Italy each contributed arrests and seizures, including $2.67 million confiscated from a group targeting retirees, while investigators also uncovered a Crime-as-a-Service network supplying domains and money-laundering support to organized crime groups.
bleepingcomputer.com
· 2026-08-25
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