By John Ogunsemore
The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) has expressed concern over the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in global online scams.
This is contained in a new crime trend update released in Lyon, France on Monday.
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Interpol said AI is being increasingly used to “develop convincing fake job ads that attract human trafficking victims as well as generate online photos or profiles through ‘deepfake’ technology for sextortion and romance scams, among other social engineering schemes”.
The organisation disclosed that human trafficking-fuelled scam centres have expanded their global footprint, noting that victims from 66 countries were trafficked into online scam centres as of March 2025.
It said that analyses of crime trend using data from relevant INTERPOL Notices issued in the past five years indicated that 74 percent of human trafficking victims were brought to centres in the original ‘hub’ region of Southeast Asia.
“However, online scam centres have increasingly been observed in other regions, including the Middle East, West Africa – which could be developing into a new regional hub – and Central America.
“While approximately 90 percent of human trafficking facilitators were from Asia, 11 per cent were from South America or Africa.
“Eighty per cent of facilitators were men, and 61 per cent were aged between 20 and 39 years old,” Interpol said.
According to the update, scam centres have drawn in hundreds of thousands of human trafficking victims, typically through false job ads, detaining them in compounds and forcing them to carry out online social engineering scams.
It said online scams engineered by the centres target a second set of globally-dispersed victims, who often suffer debilitating financial and emotional damage.
The update highlighted how emerging technologies and convergence with other major crime areas could transform human trafficking-fuelled scam centres as the crime trend continues to evolve.
“The use of artificial intelligence has been observed in a growing number of scamming cases.
“AI has been used to develop convincing fake job ads that attract human trafficking victims as well as generate online photos or profiles through ‘deepfake’ technology for sextortion and romance scams, among other social engineering schemes.
“Moreover, reports analysed by INTERPOL show that the same routes used to traffic victims to scam centres can be used to traffic drugs, firearms and protected wildlife species,” the update further reads.
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