Southeast Asia urged to step up war against AI-powered scams through data sharing
Governments and financial institutions in Southeast Asia urgently need to find a way to safely and quickly share data if they hope to contain a surge in scams, as cybersecurity experts warn that artificial intelligence is enabling criminal operations in the region to expand their reach rapidly. Criminal enterprises stole as much as US$114 billion from victims across the Asia-Pacific in 2025,…
Governments and financial institutions in Southeast Asia must improve their data sharing capabilities to combat a rise in AI-powered scams, according to cybersecurity experts. Artificial intelligence is rapidly expanding the reach of criminal operations in the region, with losses from scams reaching up to US$114 billion in 2025, more than triple the amount from 2023.
AI-powered agentic AI could enable criminals to automate and scale their operations, making it challenging to contain the issue. Regulators and institutions must establish secure mechanisms to share data across borders to identify and disrupt scams before they cause significant damage. Experts warn that criminal enterprises are investing heavily in AI training agents to target multiple victims simultaneously, posing a severe threat to the region's financial security.
To address this threat, authorities and financial institutions need to collaborate more effectively by sharing financial data, overcoming current barriers to cross-border data sharing.
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.
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