AI is now being used by criminals to scale fraud, evade enforcement, and exploit victims globally through deepfakes and synthetic identities.
According to senior Interpol officials, criminal gangs across South-east Asia are using cheap, widely available AI tools to run increasingly sophisticated and scalable scams, even as governments intensify crackdowns on offshore fraud hubs.
These networks are now able to target larger pools of victims at unprecedented speed, keeping scam centers operational while constantly shifting locations and tactics.
AI is being deployed at nearly every stage of modern fraud:
- Scammers use large language models to generate realistic job advertisements that lure trafficking victims into forced‑labor scam factories
- Free AI tools are being used inside scam activity compounds to allow syndicates to communicate with potential victims in their native languages
- Deepfake videos and voice‑cloning software are also increasingly common, enabling fraudsters to impersonate executives, public officials, and even government leaders in highly convincing social‑media scams
In the Asia Pacific region, deepfake‑related fraud incidents have reportedly surged by more than 1,500% between 2022 and 2023, with Vietnam and the Philippines being among the hardest‑hit markets. Sharp spikes in deepfake and synthetic‑identity fraud (across fintech and healthtech) have been reported, as criminals combine real data with AI‑generated details to bypass traditional verification systems.
According to Neal Jetton, who leads Interpol’s Cybercrime Directorate in Singapore, AI makes scam centers far more efficient and easier to scale at low cost, increasing both their resilience and their reach.
However, the threat is not confined to Asia. A recent deepfake video impersonating Jersey’s Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham had circulated on social media, falsely promoting a government‑backed investment scheme that promised weekly payouts in exchange for small upfront investments. Matt Palmer, director of the Jersey Cyber Security Centre, has urged the public to treat any unexpected offers with skepticism, and to question whether a senior official would realistically be promoting such a deal.
Then, even as Myanmar’s military has demolished scam compounds and other governments raid compounds in Cambodia and Laos, analysts say the networks simply relocate rather than disappear.
A UN‑backed report estimates that hundreds of thousands of people remain trapped in scam centers across the region, generating tens of billions of dollars annually for organized‑crime groups.
Interpol Secretary‑General Jürgen Stock has warned that, as AI and cryptocurrencies evolve, the situation is likely to worsen unless law enforcement, regulators, and tech platforms coordinate far more aggressively.
