UNODC Report Reveals Criminal Gangs in Asia Are Getting Big Help from AI, Crypto and More

Criminals, gather!

That seems to be happening in Asia right now, where organized crime syndicates are consolidating their groups and expanding their operations using, surprisingly, technology.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, ‘Transnational Organized Crime and the Convergence of Cyber-Enabled Fraud, Underground Banking, and Technological Innovation: A Shifting Threat Landscape’, crime syndicates in Asia are now using technologies such as Artificial intelligence (AI) and messaging apps like Telegram to consolidate operations, create new underground markets and make money laundering easier but harder to detect.

In other words, criminal groups use technology to become better organized, more productive, and more powerful.

“Organized crime groups are converging and exploiting vulnerabilities, and the evolving situation is rapidly outpacing the ability of governments to contain it,” said Masood Karimipour, UNODC Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. “By taking advantage of technological advances, criminal groups are producing larger-scale and harder-to-detect fraud, money laundering, underground banking and online scams. This has led to the creation of a criminal services economy, and the region has now become a major testing ground for transnational criminal networks looking to expand their influence and diversify into new industries.”

Criminals are working their way into deeper pockets with the help of AI

A particularly lucrative industry is online scams, with the UNODC report noting how criminal syndicates lure unsuspecting job seekers into coercive crime, asking them to defraud victims in illegal, but often legitimate-looking scam complexes. According to UNODC estimates, these scams will result in financial losses of between $18 billion and $37 billion by victims in East and Southeast Asia by 2023. (I’m thinking here of the Hong Kong case, where a financial officer was tricked into transferring $262,000 to a cybercriminal’s account.)

The biggest beneficiaries, it seems, are crime syndicates in Southeast Asia, who are working their way to unimaginable wealth using AI-powered deepfakes, allowing criminals to take their devious schemes to the next level “both in terms of sophistication and dish.” said Frederic Ho, Vice President of Asia Pacific at Jumio Corporation, in a previous interview with Cybersecurity Asia.

Generative AI in particular is emerging as a disruptor in the world of crime, allowing criminals to create hyper-realistic deepfakes and lowering the barrier to entry into the world of high-tech crime.

“The integration of generative artificial intelligence by transnational criminal groups involved in cyber fraud is a complex and alarming trend observed in Southeast Asia that represents a powerful force multiplier for criminal activities,” said John Wojcik, regional analyst at UNODC. “These developments have not only increased the scope and efficiency of cyber fraud and cybercrime; they have also lowered the barriers to entry for criminal networks that previously lacked the technical skills to exploit more sophisticated and profitable methods.”

UNODC’s latest findings support Ho’s assessment, reporting that deepfake-related crimes in the Asia-Pacific region increased by more than 1,500 percent between 2022 and 2023, while deepfake-related advertising on messaging platforms such as Telegram increased between February alone and July 2024 have increased by 600 percent.

Telegram is emerging as a communication platform for syndicates

Incidentally, Telegram has seemingly become the messaging platform of choice for crime syndicates, with its diverse channels and apparent lack of moderation making it easy for criminals to communicate and operate – with little fear of being caught or facing sanctions. This largely unmoderated environment is coming under scrutiny in France, where Pavel Durov, co-founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested for his potential liability related to the use of Telegram for drug trafficking, the distribution of child sexual abuse material, cyberbullying and yes, organized crime.

Alarmingly, the UNODC does not expect this trend of high-tech crime to slow down; instead, it is predicted to not only continue but worsen, with Southeast Asia’s cybercriminal networks in particular expanding their reach and increasing the efficiency of their operations using available technologies. All signs also point to a shift towards highly coordinated and automated criminal activity, with criminals adopting business strategies to streamline their operations, reduce costs and maximize profits.

Are tech-savvy criminals winning?

That’s all bad news for legitimate businesses and the ordinary people who are being targeted by these high-tech, highly coordinated groups. This unfortunate development, which is proof of the adage that technology is a double-edged sword, thus puts enormous pressure on both governments and companies, which will have to keep abreast of the increasingly sophisticated modus operandi of global and regional syndicates.

But it’s a challenge like no other, and overcoming it will require better cybersecurity infrastructure, more international cooperation and greater public awareness, among other things. Unfortunately, it seems that new-age criminals are starting to gain the upper hand and are figuring out how to use technology to aid them in their dastardly deeds.

Today’s criminals have indeed rallied – and are using technology as a fulcrum.

The good guys will have to fight back. And technology could also be their trump card.