A global threat enhanced by technology

LONDON, United Kingdom – A new INTERPOL assessment of global financial fraud highlights how the increased use of technology is allowing organized crime groups to better target their victims around the world.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI), large language models and cryptocurrencies, combined with phishing and ransomware-as-a-service business models, has resulted in more sophisticated and more professional, without requiring advanced technical skills and at a relatively low cost. .

The analysis underlying INTERPOL’s Global Financial Fraud Assessment also highlights the global expansion of human trafficking for forced crime in call centers, particularly to conduct type “pig butchery” – a hybrid scheme combining love fraud and investment fraud, using cryptocurrencies.

INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock said:

“We are facing a growing financial fraud epidemic, which is leading to massive, global fraud on individuals, often vulnerable people, and businesses.

“Changes in technology and the rapid increase in the scale and volume of organized crime have led to the creation of a range of new ways to defraud innocent people, businesses and even governments. With the development of AI and cryptocurrencies, the situation will only get worse without urgent action.

“It is important that there is no safe haven for financial fraudsters to operate. We must close existing gaps and ensure that information sharing across sectors and across borders is the norm, not the exception.

“We must also encourage greater reporting of financial crime and invest in capacity building and training of law enforcement to develop a more effective and truly global response. »

The report is launched by the Secretary General at the Financial Fraud Summit, hosted by the British government in London.

Key finblows

Other key findings from the report, aimed only at law enforcement, include:

• The most prevalent global trends are investment fraud, prepayment fraud, romance fraud, and business email compromise.
• Financial fraud is most often perpetrated by a network of co-offenders, ranging from highly structured to loosely affiliated.
• There is an urgent need to strengthen data collection and analysis to develop more informed and effective counter-strategies.

To effectively combat this escalation in global crime and fill critical information gaps, one of the report’s recommendations is the need to build multi-stakeholder public-private partnerships to trace and recover lost funds. because of financial fraud.

Since the launch of INTERPOL’s Global Rapid Response Payments Mechanism (I-GRIP) in 2022, the Organization has helped member countries intercept more than $500 million in proceeds of crime, largely from cyber fraud.

Regional trends in financial fraud

Africa

Compromise of business emails remains one of the most widespread trends in Africa, but the use of pig butchery fraud is increasingly widespread. Cases of fraud of this type have been identified in West and Southern Africa, targeting victims in other jurisdictions beyond the continent.

Some West African criminal groups, including Black Axe, Airlords and Supreme Eiye, continue to grow transnationally and are known to have extensive skills in online financial fraud, such as romance fraud, investment, advance fee fraud and cryptocurrency fraud.

Americas

The most common types of fraud in the Americas are identity theft, dating, technical support, prepayment, and telecommunications fraud.

Fraud fueled by human trafficking continues to be a growing criminal phenomenon. INTERPOL’s coordinated operation, Operation Turquesa Vrevealed that hundreds of victims were driven out of the region after being lured through messaging apps and social media platforms and coerced into committing fraud, including investment and pig butchery fraud.

Growing evidence indicates that Latin American crime syndicates such as Commando Vermelho, Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), and Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) are also involved in committing financial frauds.

Asia

Fraudulent pig butchery schemes launched in Asia in 2019 and expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, Asia became a focal point, with criminal organizations in the region’s poorer countries employing business-like structures.

Another type of fraud that has seen a sharp increase in recent years in Asia is a type of telecommunications fraud in which perpetrators pose as law enforcement officers or bank officials to trick victims into disclosing their credit card or bank account information or to hand over huge sums of money.

Europe

Online investment fraud, phishing and other online financial fraud schemes have proliferated on carefully selected targets to maximize profits. Mobile phone applications are also the target of cybercriminals.

The criminal networks involved in these online schemes often display sophisticated and complex modus operandi, which are usually a combination of different types of fraud.

Pork butchery, carried out mainly in call centers in Southeast Asia, is also on the rise.

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