Amid the explosion of digital fraud in Southeast Asia, including ‘pig slaughter’ investment scams, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has issued a comprehensive report this week with a dire warning about the rapid growth of this criminal ecosystem. Many digital scams traditionally rely on social engineering, or tricking victims into willingly giving up money, rather than relying on malware or other highly technical methods. However, researchers are increasingly raising the alarm that fraudsters are using the generative content of artificial intelligence and deepfakes to augment the scale and effectiveness of their activities. The UN report provides the clearest evidence yet that these high-tech tools are turning an already urgent situation into a crisis.
In addition to purchasing written scripts for employ by potential victims or relying on templates for malicious websites, attackers are increasingly using generative artificial intelligence platforms to create communication content in multiple languages, and deepfake generators that can create photos and even videos of non-existent people in order to show their victims and augment veracity. Fraudsters are increasingly using tools that can empty victims’ cryptocurrency wallets, manipulating transaction records to trick targets into sending cryptocurrency to the wrong places, and using intelligent contracts to steal cryptocurrency. In some cases, they are purchasing Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet systems to aid their efforts.
“Agile criminal networks are integrating these new technologies faster than expected, driven by new online marketplaces and service providers that have accelerated the economy of illicit services,” John Wójcik, UNODC regional analyst, tells WIRED. “These changes have not only expanded the scope and effectiveness of cyber-enabled fraud and cybercrime, but also lowered entry barriers for criminal networks that previously lacked the technical skills to use more sophisticated and profitable methods.”
For years, criminals linked to China have smuggled people to giant centers in Southeast Asia, where they are often forced to commit fraud, held against their will and beaten if they refuse instructions. Over the past five years, approximately 200,000 people from at least 60 countries have been smuggled into centers mainly in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. However, as WIRED reports have shown, these operations are spreading across the globe – with fraud infrastructure emerging in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America and West Africa.
Most importantly, these organized crime operations led to pig slaughter scams in which they build intimate relationships with victims before presenting an “investment opportunity” and asking for money. Criminal organizations could defraud people in the area $75 billion through pig slaughter fraud. According to the UN report, in addition to pig slaughter, criminals in Southeast Asia also engage in employment fraud, law enforcement impersonation, asset recovery fraud, virtual kidnapping, sexual extortion, loan fraud, business email abuse and more. illegal schemes. UN officials estimate that criminal networks in the region made as much as $37 billion last year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, all this revenue allows fraudsters to expand and diversify their operations, incorporating recent infrastructure and technology into their systems in hopes of making them more productive and brutally effective.
For example, fraudsters often limit their language skills and ability to converse with potentially hundreds of victims simultaneously in multiple languages and dialects. However, the rise of generative AI over the past two years – including the introduction of writing tools such as ChatGPT – is making it easier for criminals to break down language barriers and create the content needed for fraud.