Artificial intelligence is being used to amplify online scams and cyber-fraud across Asia, Neal Jetton, Interpol cybercrime chief, said.
The rise of AI-driven fraud allows criminals to operate at a scale that threatens to outpace the capabilities of international law enforcement agencies.
In a recent assessment from 2024, Interpol found that cybercrime now accounts for more than 30% [1] of all recorded crime in over half of the countries surveyed across Asia and the South Pacific. This shift indicates a systemic move toward digital criminality as the primary method of fraud in the region.
Jetton said that AI is enabling cybercriminals to operate at an unprecedented scale. The technology allows bad actors to automate phishing attempts and create more convincing fraudulent content, making it harder for citizens to detect scams.
The financial impact of these operations is substantial. Reports on the annual value of the scam industry vary, with some estimates placing the revenue of scam centers at close to $40 billion [2] per year, while other data suggests the Southeast Asian scam industry alone is valued at about $60 billion [3].
These operations often function as industrial-scale enterprises. By leveraging AI, criminals can target thousands of victims simultaneously with personalized messages, a tactic that increases the success rate of digital fraud.
Interpol continues to monitor these trends as the gap between criminal innovation and regulatory response widens. The agency is focusing on cross-border cooperation to dismantle the infrastructure supporting these AI-powered networks.
“AI is enabling cybercriminals to operate at an unprecedented scale.”
The integration of AI into cybercrime represents a shift from manual, labor-intensive fraud to automated, high-efficiency exploitation. Because these scams generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue, they provide criminal organizations with the capital to further invest in more sophisticated technology, creating a feedback loop that complicates traditional policing and requires a shift toward AI-driven defense mechanisms.
