Interpol has led a major operation against online fraud, in which AI is playing an increasingly important role, notably in identity theft, online sexual blackmail and investment fraud. .
Technological advances are incredible, but it is usually not long before cybercriminals take advantage of them to create malicious content that is extremely difficult to detect, making the fight against online fraud much more difficult. Just look at deepfakes – photos or videos that use artificial intelligence to place a face on another face, and therefore reproduce “fake” people – used for revenge porns or fakenews, false offers of employment on LinkedIn – AI can go so far as to create false recruitment processes! – or even advertisements for fake ChatGPT, Google Bard and other chatbots.
And this practice is starting to gain momentum! Interpol announced in a statement the success of an international operation to combat online fraud called HAECHI IV, which took place over six months, between July and December, with the cooperation of thirty-four countries. It led to the arrest of 3,500 suspects and the seizure of 300 million dollars (270 million euros). It targeted seven types of online fraud, including voice phishing, romance scams, online sexual blackmail – also known as sextortion – and money laundering associated with illegal online gambling, which did not Interpol has not failed to worry about the use of artificial intelligence to usurp identities.
Scams and AI: increasingly complex scams
75% of the cases investigated concerned investment fraud, professional email compromise and e-commerce fraud. Ultimately, more than 82,000 suspicious bank accounts were blocked, while $199 million in hard currency and $101 million in digital assets were seized. As part of this operation, Interpol has issued two Purple Notices – international requests for cooperation or alerts through which police from member countries can share essential information on operating procedures, objects, devices and methods of concealment used by criminals – in order to warn countries against new practices of digital investment fraud.
The first notice concerned a new fraud detected in Korea which involves the sale of NFTs, digital tokens that are theoretically unforgeable, with promises of enormous return on investment. This is an increasingly common scam in the cryptocurrency industry, where developers abruptly abandon a project and investors then lose their money – beware of wonderful promises!
The other notice warned against the use of artificial intelligence and deepfakes to make identity theft more credible. The British branch of the operation has thus reported several cases where synthetic content generated by AI was used to deceive, harass or extort victims, notably in the context of identity theft scams, blackmail online sex and investment scams. Some cases have also involved the imitation of victims’ relatives through voice cloning (see our article).
“The 200% increase in HAECHI IV arrests shows the continuing challenge posed by cybercrime, and reminds us that we must remain vigilant and continue to refine our tactics against online fraud, hence the importance of INTERPOL operations like this” said Stephen Kavanagh, Executive Director of Interpol Police Services. This is just the beginning of a long game of cat and mouse!