By Martin Ekpeke
Remi Afon, a cybersecurity expert, has raised the alarm that 2026 will be the year of the “Automation of Deception,” where sophisticated criminal networks leverage artificial intelligence to scale fraud at unprecedented speeds.
This alarm is coming as Nigeria is facing a new frontier in digital warfare as cybercrime transitions from manual “yahoo-yahoo” tactics into a highly structured, AI-driven industry.
In an analysis of Nigeria’s digital security outlook, Remi Afon, founder of GoLegit Africa and a former President of the Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN), revealed that the informal online fraud of previous years has evolved into a transnational criminal enterprise.
This shift, according to him follows a turbulent 2025, which saw high-profile, intelligence-led arrests by the EFCC and INTERPOL, proving that geography no longer protects digital offenders.
The most alarming trend for 2026 is the integration of AI into social engineering. According to Afon, threat actors are now using AI to generate highly convincing communications in English, Pidgin, and local dialects.
“These context-aware attacks exploit cultural familiarity and economic pressure. Deception is becoming harder to detect and easier to automate,” Afon noted.
The report highlights several key areas where AI will disrupt security, beginning with the increased use of deepfake technology to create synthetic audio and video for impersonation fraud targeting businesses and families. Furthermore, criminals are now using automated profiling to identify vulnerable victims and personalize scam narratives at scale. Finally, the rise of sophisticated investment scams involves the use of cloned trading platforms and “Telegram groups” bolstered by AI-generated testimonials and automated customer service personas.
As criminal groups decentralize and recruit technically skilled youth to replace those arrested, international cooperation is expected to reach new heights. 2026 will likely see increased intelligence sharing, asset tracing, and extraditions across Africa.
However, experts argue that “policing” alone will not solve the crisis. The misuse of fintech platforms and digital payment “rails” for laundering remains a significant strain on Nigeria’s financial ecosystem.
The outlook for 2026 emphasizes a desperate need for a “rehabilitation and redirection” model. GoLegit Africa suggests that many young Nigerians involved in forex and crypto scams are economically motivated rather than ideologically criminal.
“If we cannot out-educate, out-employ, and out-inspire organised cybercrime, we will continue to chase its symptoms rather than its source,” says Afon.
The call to action for the coming year is clear: Nigeria must balance global enforcement with local pathways that convert underground digital skills into legitimate careers in the burgeoning digital economy. Without providing these alternatives, the cycle of recruitment and arrest will continue unabated, regardless of how many networks are dismantled.