- Interpol says GenAI-based fraud is 4.5 times more profitable
- AI Powers Phishing, Deepfakes, and Social Engineering Campaigns
- Agentic AI could enable end-to-end autonomous fraud in the future
Cybercriminals and fraudsters using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) are 4.5 times more profitable than those who don’t, according to Interpol.
In a new research paper, titled ‘Global Financial Fraud Threat Assessment’, the international law enforcement agency said AI “significantly enhances both the efficiency and effectiveness” of fraud campaigns, suggesting its popularity in the underbelly of crime will only grow.
There are many ways scammers can use GenAI, but the most obvious seems to be to refine phishing content. Before the emergence of AI, the best way to spot a phishing email was to simply proofread it, as the scammers were usually not native speakers and the messages were riddled with errors that made it clear they weren’t from legitimate brands.
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With AI to tweak and rephrase content, proofreading is no longer a viable option, and phishing emails have become more effective and impactful.
But this is only a “gateway drug” to AI-based fraud. High-profile scammers are using AI for deepfakes, creating hyper-convincing voice clones from almost no source material.
To make matters even worse, the dark web is full of widely available kits (deepfake-as-a-service) that further lower the barriers to entry and make launching an identity theft campaign a simple matter of money.
“Over the past two years, technology has continued to enable and empower financial fraud, allowing criminal networks to expand their operations exponentially with minimal investment,” Interpol said. “Digital technology and AI, in particular, have radically transformed social engineering and victim profiling techniques, enabling fraudsters to create highly persuasive fraudulent environments.
Interpol also discussed agentic AI, systems that “can autonomously plan and execute comprehensive fraud campaigns, from reconnaissance to ransom demands.” For scammers, this looks promising, but it has not yet reached the level of mass use of GenAI. Whether or not this will happen remains to be seen. After all, the promise of agentic AI has yet to be fully realized in the legal world.
Via The register
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