AI supercharging online scams across Asia, warns Interpol’s cybercrime chief

Cybercriminals are leveraging artificial intelligence to escalate online scams across Asia at an unprecedented rate, outpacing law enforcement's ability to respond, Interpol's cybercrime chief has warned. Neal Jetton, director of cybercrime at the global policing agency, stated that AI is not necessarily creating entirely new criminal activities but is dramatically increasing the scale, scope, and efficiency of existing ones.

Tools powered by generative AI are enabling the creation of highly convincing phishing emails. Simultaneously, deepfake and voice-cloning technologies are being employed to impersonate trusted individuals, company executives, and public officials in increasingly sophisticated fraudulent schemes. This technological advancement poses a significant challenge as criminals can adapt and deploy these tools more rapidly than authorities can develop countermeasures.

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Criminals are always going to be able to leverage these technologies quicker. AI is not necessarily creating brand new crime types. What it’s doing is increasing the scale, scope, and efficiency of the crime types that already exist.

Interpol's latest cyberthreat assessment reveals a concerning trend, with cybercrime accounting for over 30% of all recorded crimes in more than half of the surveyed countries in Asia and the South Pacific. The report highlights online scams, phishing, and ransomware as prevalent threats. It also notes a rise in AI-enabled deepfake scams and large-scale fraud operations. Data from cybersecurity firm Trend Micro indicates that over 6.5 billion cyberthreats were detected and blocked across the region in 2024, with more than 135,000 ransomware attacks recorded. Phishing links are clicked by individuals at roughly twice the global average, with cloud-based applications being prime targets.

Organized crime groups are increasingly integrating AI into their cyber-enabled operations, particularly in Southeast Asia, where large-scale scam compounds exploit both victims and trafficked individuals. Jetton described this as the "industrialization of cybercrime," indicating a shift towards more systematic and efficient criminal enterprises. The discussion of deepfakes on cybercriminal forums has surged by 600% among Southeast Asian threat actors from February to June 2024, underscoring the rapid adoption of these advanced technologies.

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