Asia faces scam ‘epidemic’ threat as gangs exploit agentic AI, cybercrime expert warns
Online scam syndicates that rely on trafficked workers, guarded compounds and vast call-centre-style operations could soon become more threatening by exploiting agentic AI to run some fraud operations autonomously, a cybercrime expert has warned. Unlike earlier uses of artificial intelligence to write scripts, translate messages or produce deepfakes, agentic AI systems can carry out multi-step…
Asia faces a potential "scam epidemic" as gangs attempt to exploit agentic AI, according to a cybercrime expert. Agentic AI systems can perform multi-step tasks with little human input, making scams faster, cheaper, more personalized, and harder to trace. This could lead to losses of over US$114 billion from transnational online scams in the Asia-Pacific region, which tripled from 2023.
Jonno Newman, a cybercrime expert at on-chain intelligence platform TRM, warned that once criminals master agentic AI, scam operations could become exponentially more complex. Instead of relying on a single human, syndicates may use bots capable of doing the work of 10 people. The AI-driven scam operations could quickly become decentralized, making it difficult for authorities to keep up with the threat.
Newman cautioned that traditional indicators of scams, such as broken cameras in video calls, would be less noticeable with AI-generated deepfakes that accurately mimic victims' context and habits. While authorities cannot be completely defenseless, they must accelerate the adoption of AI to detect and neutralize scam operations.
Additionally, cross-border cooperation between governments and private sector partners is crucial to cut off the resources of known or suspected scam operations.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.