AI fuels more than half of cybercrime in Africa as scams surge – Interpol

Post by karim79 » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 1:43 AM UTC

Nition wrote: post #96

karim79 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. The paper is about reducing a set, as far as I understand. It's not about mistakes. It's about the deliberacy of basically squeezing out the individuals who are vulnerable and who do not see the signs of being scammed.

Yes but ascribing those motivations is a guess. There's no actual scammer saying they are doing that vs. it just being a fairly unsophisticated scam. It might be the reason, but the paper provides no actual proof, and as far as I've been able to find, neither has anyone else in the decade since. Just a whole lot of people repeating the theory as fact.

Post by cjbgkagh » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 1:44 AM UTC

ElProlactin wrote: post #82

cjbgkagh wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what the Trump admin is doing is horribly corrupt and I hope the lot of them go to jail for that and other things, but in relative terms what Trump is doing is still less corrupt than what happens in many poor countries.

> ...but in relative terms what Trump is doing is still less corrupt than what happens in many poor countries. In relative terms? So what you're saying is that Trump and his family grifting Americans for a couple billion dollars so far in his second term is better than, say, Hun Sen and his family grifting Cambodians for somewhere between $500 million and $4 billion over ~40 years because the US economy is so much bi…

Post by mrheosuper » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 1:49 AM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #74

cheriot wrote: post #72

While he was still living on his own, my grandfather struggled with people sending him scam letters in the mail. He sent a meaningful amount of money to obvious scams despite being a shrewd businessman all his life. AI will take these cons to another level. Is there any way to help the elderly navigate this shift?

Is there any way to help the elderly navigate this shift? "Ignore anyone asking you for money unless you know them and they do it in-person."

Post by kazinator » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:02 AM UTC

PunchyHamster wrote: post #48

asdfman123 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been used for defense for a long time. AI is why spam filters started actually working in the 2000s.

different kind of AI

Post by abrowne » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:15 AM UTC

karim79 wrote: post #83

aussieguy1234 wrote: post #80

Got a scam call yesterday morning. An American-ish accent, but quite rusty, I suspected they were using an AI voice changer. They said "Am I speaking to ?". I did not answer that and instead asked what company they were calling from, then they immediately hung up. I guess people who ask that initial question are disqualified for their scam, they're looking for more gullible folks.

I simply don't answer calls from unknown numbers. I feel like it's my right as a grown-up.