AI is bringing enormous benefits...to criminals

AI is supercharging the fraud industry, says Interpol

Artificial intelligence is accelerating financial fraud’s scale and profitability, with schemes using the technology now generating more than four times the returns of traditional scams.

International policing body Interpol said AI has "greatly boosted both efficiency and effectiveness" in fraud operations, allowing criminals to carry out highly convincing scams with minimal effort and cost.

In its latest Global Financial Fraud Threat Assessment report, Interpol says AI-assisted fraud schemes are now 4.5 times more profitable than those that do not use the technology.

One of generative AI’s most common uses is refining communication with targets.

Fraudsters can now produce polished emails and messages that eliminate telltale grammatical errors or linguistic quirks. This has made impersonation scams significantly harder to detect.

At the more advanced end, deepfake technology has seen rapid improvement.

Interpol said criminals can now generate convincing voice clones using as little as 10 seconds of audio, often taken from social media posts.

Meanwhile, "deepfake-as-a-service" kits are being sold on the dark web, offering ready-made tools to create synthetic identities.

These low-cost packages are helping to industrialise fraud, lowering the barrier to entry for criminal networks worldwide.

AI is transforming scamming

Interpol warns that AI-driven tools, combined with cryptocurrencies and fraud-as-a-service platforms, are turning scams into an organised global industry.

Losses linked to financial fraud reached an estimated $442 billion in 2025 alone, a figure expected to rise in the coming years.

The agency also highlights concerns around agentic AI – autonomous systems capable of independently carrying out complex tasks.

While not yet widely used by criminals, such systems could soon allow fraudsters to automate large parts of their operations, from gathering victims’ personal data to identifying vulnerabilities in corporate systems.

In ransomware scenarios, AI agents could analyse stolen data and recommend optimal ransom demands based on a victim's financial standing.

Rise in sextortion and scam centres

Authorities have also reported a surge in sextortion cases involving AI-generated imagery.

In some instances, victims who initially resisted financial scams were later targeted with fabricated explicit content and blackmailed.

The report links these developments to the rapid expansion of organised scam centres, which first emerged in Southeast Asia but are now spreading to regions including Africa, Latin America and parts of Europe.

Many of these operations rely on trafficked individuals forced to work under coercion.

Interpol believes hundreds of thousands of people worldwide may be involved in such centres, often as victims themselves.

Despite ongoing international operations, law enforcement agencies are struggling to contain the growth of these networks.

Recent coordinated actions have led to hundreds of arrests across multiple regions. However, Interpol said the expansion of scam centres is currently outpacing efforts to dismantle them.

Interpol's secretary general, Valdecy Urquiza, warned the impact of fraud extends far beyond financial damage.

"It is vital to remember that the cost of financial crime is not just money - it is people's life savings, their dignity, and in the worst case, their life," he said.

Interpol is urging closer collaboration between governments, police forces and private companies, along with increased public awareness, to combat what it describes as an escalating global security threat.