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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

#161

Post by tgv »

motbus3 wrote: post #30

Criminals are bad, evil, jail etc etc. I agree. But while the core problem that creates this environment is not solved, nothing will fix it. Not even if you bomb the hell out of it. Ethics, morals and whatever people call only exists if economy is stable. If you let this sort of opportunistic environment exist there will be people to work in it

> Ethics, morals and whatever people call only exists if economy is stable.

Dire economic conditions increase crime, that much seems true, but as long as it is profitable, there will be crime, under all economic conditions. It is, as you say, opportunism.

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

#162

Post by seanmcdirmid »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #148
normie3000 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great if that works for you. Asking for money is common over voice or whatsapp in some countries for things like medical care, funerals, weddings, police "fines", school fees etc.

Yeah, fair point, it's pretty well outside normal for me (there's a world outside of my lived experience? Nah!)

The scams have to be culturally relevant to be effective, which is why they set out wide bets looking to see what sticks with a fairly small target audience.

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

#163

Post by biztos »

gambiting wrote: post #159
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?

I read it as asserting that unlike in Asia, people do this work willingly. Which I don't actually believe: if you couldn't find qualified people for this work in Cambodia, how are you going to find them in Africa?

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

#164

Post by weatherlite »

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?

You can become a legal guardian, and/or get access and shared ownership on their bank account and monitor it constantly. But yeah , it's a hassle.

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

#165

Post by jsunderland323 »

gambiting wrote: post #159
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?

Yup, this is usually the case in pig butchering operations iirc.

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

#166

Post by jen729w »

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?

Encourage them to move their money to where it's at least more difficult to access.

Recently I discovered that my mam – a middle-class ex-civil-servant, not rich, but not poor – had £++ sitting in the account that was linked to the Visa card she carries around all day. Why? Just because she hadn't moved it elsewhere. Terrifying, obviously.

All she needed was my encouragement. I think it's in Premium Bonds now: not scam-proof, but at least not trivially scammable.

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

#167

Post by [deleted] »

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?

[deleted]

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

#168

Post by elorant »

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 had a similar problem with phone scams for my elder parents. Installed Asterisk with a Raspberry on their land line to allow only whitelisted numbers and the problem was solved. I guess someone has to step in at some point. Problem is not every parent has a tech literate child and the industry doesn’t seem to bother to offer decent solutions. All call blocker hardware that I found didn’t allow whitelist functionality. I guess there’s a business opportunity here easily, build hardware/software solutions to protect the elderly.

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

#169

Post by awesomeusername »

mrheosuper wrote: post #105
userbinator wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

Easier said than done. One of most popular scam here is a scammer using deepfake/ai calling victim saying there was serious accident to one of victim's relative and they need money for hospital (that's how it works here, money for proper caring). The victim would be panic and send the money. Usually, the scammer will think of a scenario that give the victim very limited time to stop and think, or put them in the stat…

You just gave me an idea... Let's all pitch in and spread the cost of health care around. Average it out so no one gets left behind.

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

#170

Post by clarionbell »

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…

I won't discount the possibility of someone getting into this of their own free will out of hand. But I seriously doubt that it's going to remain this way long term. We have recent examples from Cambodia and Myanmar after all.
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