Overview
- Officials say artificial intelligence is “industrializing” fraud by automating high‑volume, multilingual campaigns that dramatically raise criminals’ reach and returns.
- Interpol’s 2026 assessment reports fraud schemes using AI can be up to 4.5 times more profitable than traditional methods.
- Fraud is now embedded in organized crime with links to human trafficking, cybercrime and money laundering, and in some African regions it has financed terrorist groups.
- The report highlights the spread of coercive scam centres and a sharp rise in sextortion, increasingly fused with romance and investment schemes using scripts, deepfakes and voice cloning.
- Since 2024, Interpol has seen a 54% rise in fraud‑related notices, supported over 1,500 cross‑border cases tied to an estimated $1.1 billion in losses, and it is urging closer cooperation with tech firms and banks.