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

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

#151

Post by keybored »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #66
ElProlactin wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really depends on how you define corruption. Rich countries have created a definition that makes it a poor country thing, conveniently ignoring the type of corruption that is institutionalized (and in some cases even legalized) in many rich countries.

The point of institutionalizing corruption is to reduce competition from competing corruption entities. Which is bad but not as bad as an endemically corrupt society. I think it can be true that we have in effect far more corruption in the west than what is readily recognized at the same time that it’s true that we have less corruption than most other countries.

But that’s the beautiful thing. The system working as the law, regulations, etc. dictates is by definition not corruption! No wonder the upper middle class and richer segments hate corruption. (Not all of them. The Rule of Law kind of liberal certainly does.)

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

#152

Post by aenis »

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?

The advice I gave to my folks -- hard ignore any contact attempts not initiated by them. Dont read, dont answer the phone except from recognized numbers. I think thats the only way. No legitimate businesses call or text people out of the blue these days.

I dont believe in AI voice assistants picking up phones and filtering scammers. Those tbings will fight a losing game considering how the mainstream LLMs are built.

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

#153

Post by aenis »

newman8r wrote: post #106
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?

I assume AI assistants would be able to prevent a lot of this

I dont think so. The LLMs are trained to play it safe and avoid responsibility for hard decisions. No commercial model will say "No, I wont connect your call, I dont think you are bleeding to death at this moment, I believe you are a scammer". Nope.

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

#154

Post by Jach »

karim79 wrote: post #141
MisterTea wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a friend who had a similar experience with a dating site scammer. The guy dropped the act and admitted he was operating out of Africa (I forget the country) and was not proud of what he was doing but did so out of desperation. He told my friend of his living situation, rampant poverty of his country and little to no hope of a future. That small conversation stuck with my friend.

The stuff does stick because it's literally connecting with humans who are hard done by and it's always affecting. It's really sad.

It's more sad to me that it's usually just a second layer to the scam. People's empathy can be exploited just as easily if not more so than their intellect.

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

#155

Post by alightsoul »

Razengan wrote: post #45

Why not use AI to detect and avoid scams? As if people weren't scamming before AI, with the billions of dollars seized from the Chinese scam dungeons in Cambodia [0] where they had kidnapped people and tied them to computers (including a few deaths, and another wave of arrests just recently) Scammers gonna scam. At least if they can use AI for it then maybe they'll kidnap fewer people [0] https://news.ycombinator.com…

This can backfire and they would go back to kidnapping people. Or they will humanize their ai.

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

#156

Post by aenis »

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.

I never responded to an unknown or caller id hidden in 20 years. I am just fine, dont think I lost anything of value.

I also asked my parents and inlaws to adopt the same approach. Never pick up, never read any texts from unknown numbers. Those are all untrusted bytes.

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

#157

Post by alightsoul »

knicholes wrote: post #26
TacticalCoder wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Crypto and now AI, every new tech we make these days it seems the main utility is just to enable criminals ... It's nearly as if there was a lesson here about some individuals in the human race? What was that yet about psychos? That 1% of all humans, no matter the socio-economic class, no matter the parents, are just full-on psychopaths. The question is: what do we do, as a society, about those who only want to har…

Sounds simple to me. Remove them from society.

So kill psychopaths? Or let them kill each other in their own remote island where they are banned or killed on arrival if they go to any other place?

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

#158

Post by paganel »

restlessforge wrote: post #2

I'm surprised it's only half There's a joke about certain princes here but I just feel bad for the people getting scammed since I know firsthand how realistic these things can seem

> since I know firsthand how realistic these things can seem

Happened to a person close to me a few months ago and, indeed, it has become uncannily realistic. I'm surprised it hasn't attracted the attention of the relevant authorities, because harmless people are now being scammed of their live savings (or worse, in the case of the person close to me she had actually borrowed the sum she was scammed of) and no-one seems to be doing anything. It's also highly regressive, as in it seems to affect the people that would most need that money (in a way it's similar to how gambling affects the lower classes a lot more compared to the wealthy).

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

#159

Post by gambiting »

madradavid wrote: post #144

African scammers used to be small scale or lone wolf type of operations. You had scammers like Hushpuppi etc who become celebrities John Gotti style. Now the Chinese have taken over , they are moving from places like Malaysia and setting up these huge scam compounds , they combine the legitimate businesses (construction, import/export) with gambling and these crypto, mobile money and pig butchering scams. This is onl…

>>no one is forced into these things,

I was with you until then - hasn't it been documented over and over again that at least in some of these places people are basically slaves, they have their passports taken away, kept in a walled compound and not allowed to leave?

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

#160

Post by gambiting »

aenis wrote: post #152
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?

The advice I gave to my folks -- hard ignore any contact attempts not initiated by them. Dont read, dont answer the phone except from recognized numbers. I think thats the only way. No legitimate businesses call or text people out of the blue these days. I dont believe in AI voice assistants picking up phones and filtering scammers. Those tbings will fight a losing game considering how the mainstream LLMs are built.

It would be great if not for the fact that at least over here in the UK your doctor or anyone from the NHS will always call you from a restricted number. So especially if you're elderly and have regular check ups or anything medical going on, the advice to "only answer known numbers" falls apart. And in my experience NHS receptionists have zero patience for the whole "tell me why you're calling" automated screens too, they just disconnect straight away.
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