Interpol’s global chief information security officer, Bjorn R Watne, said on 1 October that AI is making established cybercrime tactics faster and easier to scale rather than creating new methods, Moneycontrol reported. Watne was speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of Tech Week Singapore.
Key points
- Watne characterised AI’s effect on scams and fraud as an increase in speed and scale.
- He said scam operators can target multiple victims at once, while better translation tools and digital identities make fraudulent interactions harder to recognise.
- He singled out agentic AI as systems gain the ability to act on users’ behalf.
Watne describes faster scams and fraud
“It’s an evolution and not a revolution,” Watne said of AI’s effect on cybercrime. He described the change chiefly as one of “speed and scale” for techniques criminals already use, including scams and fraud.
Watne said AI lets scam operators approach multiple victims simultaneously. He also pointed to improvements in translation tools and digital identities, which he said are making fraudulent exchanges increasingly difficult to distinguish from genuine ones.
Agentic AI concerns Watne
Watne identified agentic AI as a particular concern as systems gain the ability to act on behalf of their users.
