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

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

#231

Post by tencentshill » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

ecshafer wrote: post #32

slig wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you plan to bet on this by buying PUTs? Should be easy money, right? /s

Tesla is imo overvalued and has been for a long time. Its bankrupted a lot of pretty savvy investors in the last 10 years trying to short them because its obviously over valued. Market irrationality vs solvency and all of that.

For good or bad, no one else is doing what they're doing. That capability (and lack of safety concern) is just not present on any other car you can buy today, and certainly not back in 2015. I do wonder how they've gotten away with it through such a wide variety of governments and regulatory environments.

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

#232

Post by zbentley » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #123

infamouscow wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scam is usually a phone call from a loved one in jail or the hospital. It immediately creates a sense of panic and fully explains the random phone number. The voice doesn't have to sound like you either.

This is where "security questions" can be useful; neither the question nor answer need to be real, and the more outrageous the better. "You're my daughter? Then tell me the name of your twelth pet centipede."

For voice scams this is critical. I set up duress codes with all of my non technical and elderly family and close friends last year.

It should be a simple, pink-elephant-type nonsense question and answer that you rehearse a few times in person and make sure they never share with others. “Q: What’s your favorite leprechaun? A: Rutabaga” or something. Even cognitively impaired folks can, with a few rehearsals over a day or so, retain that easily, I’ve found.

Reminding them to practice it when people reach out pretending to be me takes a bit more rehearsal, but I’ve found that it sticks reliably even then.

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

#233

Post by zbentley » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:06 PM UTC

carlosjobim wrote: post #224

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?

No, there is no way to help them. But the coming generations of elderly will be more resistant, as they've grown up in an all-scam society. You could stand in real life in front of your parents or grandparents while they're talking on the phone to a scammer pretending to be you, and they would rather believe the scammer than believe you. The current generation of elderly have great disdain and distrust for their chil…

I hope you’re right. Anecdotally based on the significant number of young, digital native people I know who are getting successfully scammed, I’m not sure.

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

#234

Post by jerf » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:11 PM UTC

fadesibert wrote: post #199

jerf wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IPOs experiencing significant drops after their IPO is not a crazy theory, it's pretty much the norm: https://potomacwealthmanagementllc.com/2026/03/04/underperfo... Not guaranteed, but the norm. I've never tried to buy PUTs on a big IPO but I wouldn't be surprised that there's a premium on them, if options trading is even available.

Your instinct is correct. Options markets are wide following an IPO (ie there is a significant difference between the price at which a dealer will sell a specific option at a specific strike for a specific time). That tends to settle down ~60 days after trading, with seasonsed order flow, a realized volatility pattern, Observed volumes, open interest, liquidity in the stock (eg hedging becomes cheaper) and naturally…

Oh wow, thank you for that chart. That is fantastic. The premium is huge. And for good reasons.

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

#235

Post by everybodyknows » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:18 PM UTC

sigseg1v wrote: post #220

aenis wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I think thats a valid edge case - and a manageable one. If you are expecting a call from a doctor, lift the firewall for a while.

It gets a bit more complicated than that. I don't even regularly need things from my doctor, but I have a referral to a specialist right now, and the waiting time is around 16 months to be contacted by them. At that time they will randomly call me from a restricted number. So I must have all call screening and blocking off for probably 2 years in order to accommodate this. And I can't time it because in the past I wa…

Had similar situation here in the US -- though with a more tolerable delay -- with a private health care provider.

The fix of course is an enforced requirement from higher authority that health care providers communicate only by means that prove identity of the source -- never calling from an unverifiable number.

How to make that happen, though ... ?

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

#236

Post by carlosjobim » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:27 PM UTC

asdfman123 wrote: post #40

spiderfarmer wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone who is as unpopular as Elon the cringelord Musk can convince the markets that Tesla is worth its current stock price, I doubt the AI bubble will burst.

He can keep the scam going for a long time but not forever.

Consider everything it takes in organization to be able to send rockets to space and bring them back. That kind of organization would be able to do anything. There is where the value is. The world is not static and people are not static.

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

#237

Post by lesostep » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:49 PM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #228

dosisking wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use "Queen to queen's level 3" and then wait for the appropriate response.

The answer is easily found by Google, and any AI could give the correct answer instantly.

And that's why you teach your elders the wrong answer for a right question! :D

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

#238

Post by cjbgkagh » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 4:28 PM UTC

Dylan16807 wrote: post #129

ElProlactin wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Do you even read what you write? If you institutionalize corruption to reduce competition between different corrupt factions, you end up with a not endemically corrupt society? Here's what it actually means: if you institutionalize corruption, you end…

> endemically corrupt Both options are endemically corrupt but removing most kinds of corruption is an improvement.

By endemic I mean to its core, it’s the difference of having everyone being corrupt versus just the elites / political class being corrupt. If anyone thinks that the problem of corrupt elites could be improved by extending that corruption to everyone then I’m not sure what would convince them otherwise.

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

#239

Post by ElProlactin » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 5:09 PM UTC

cjbgkagh wrote: post #238

Dylan16807 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> endemically corrupt Both options are endemically corrupt but removing most kinds of corruption is an improvement.

By endemic I mean to its core, it’s the difference of having everyone being corrupt versus just the elites / political class being corrupt. If anyone thinks that the problem of corrupt elites could be improved by extending that corruption to everyone then I’m not sure what would convince them otherwise.

Are you suggesting that all the people in countries like Cambodia are "corrupt"?

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

#240

Post by cjbgkagh » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 5:42 PM UTC

ElProlactin wrote: post #239

cjbgkagh wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By endemic I mean to its core, it’s the difference of having everyone being corrupt versus just the elites / political class being corrupt. If anyone thinks that the problem of corrupt elites could be improved by extending that corruption to everyone then I’m not sure what would convince them otherwise.

Are you suggesting that all the people in countries like Cambodia are "corrupt"?

I am suggesting that it's more than the elites, then you'd have to take into account the people who would act in a corrupt way if presented with the opportunity. As someone who has tried and failed to sell software into Cambodia I know from experience that the corruption there is very thorough and continues well on down to the lower strata of society.