Europol Warns Of AI-Driven Crime Threats

Europol said on last week that organised criminal gangs are using AI-powered frauds and payment systems to target victims, allowing them to fast and inexpensively scale their operations around the world while making them more difficult to detect.

The technology allows them to construct messages in different languages and generate highly realistic dupes to mimic persons and extort targets in global cyberfraud operations, according to the European Serious Organised Crime Threat Assessment report from the EU’s law enforcement agency.

By Gamuchirai Mapako

Criminals are also exploiting generative artificial intelligence to create child sexual assault content, according to the report.

“The basic DNA of organised crime is evolving, criminal networks have evolved into global, technology-driven criminal enterprises, leveraging digital platforms, illicit financial flows, and geopolitical instability to expand their influence,”

said Catherine De Bolle, Europol’s executive director.

According to the agency, parts of every criminal process, such as recruitment, communication, and payment systems, are gradually shifting online.

The paper cautioned that the arrival of completely autonomous AI, in which computers plan and execute tasks without human intervention, “could pave the way for entirely AI-controlled criminal networks, ushering in a new era in organised crime.”
Europol said in late February that two dozen persons had been arrested for spreading AI-generated images of child abuse.

“The same qualities that make AI revolutionary – accessibility, adaptability, and sophistication – also make it a powerful tool for criminal networks,” Europol said.

“These technologies are automating and expanding criminal operations, making them more scalable and harder to detect.”

Europol stated that the operation was one of the first to involve AI-generated child abuse material, and that there was a lack of national regulations governing the use of AI technologies for this purpose.
In early December, it announced that it had shut down MATRIX, an encrypted messaging service used for international drug and weaponry trafficking.

Europol identified cyber-attacks, migrant smuggling, drug and guns trafficking, and malfeasance in waste management as among the continent’s fastest rising criminal dangers.