8 comments

  • karim79 4 minutes ago
    Here's an amazing study from Microsoft which I recalled from back in the day (PDF):

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...

  • usernametaken29 45 minutes ago
    Coincidentally it’s also the biggest scam in the west. Wait till the IPO and the inevitable 80% stock drop of OpenAI ….
    • spiderfarmer 15 minutes ago
      If someone who is as unpopular as Elon the cringelord Musk can convince the markets that Tesla is worth its current stock price, I doubt the AI bubble will burst.
  • merelydev 29 minutes ago
    The main fuel is the internet , followed by mobile phones and social media.

    AI definitely makes the scams more believable, a Nigerian Prince can now easily forge documents.

    But at the same time AI is a double edged sword, it can be used for both offence and defense.

    • cyanydeez 12 minutes ago
      the point though of a proper scam is to filter out the believables and find the guillibles.

      You don't exactly want convincing evidence; you want a good story.

    • LocalH 26 minutes ago
      The main fuel is the "need" to have browsers that can execute code, coupled with the ability to transfer money via the internet. JavaScript was a mistake, e-commerce was a mistake, and so is everything else that came after.

      Let's ask Vint Cerf whether the web was meant to run logic, or just be a document format. I bet no matter what he answers, the world would be like the GIF pronunciation "I don't care if the original creator said it's pronounced like giraffe, I'm gonna say it like gift because I KnOw BeTtEr"

      Internet 3 when (because I know that academia does already have an "Internet 2", although I bet due to Internet 1 security issues, Internet 2 is already compromised too)

      • stingraycharles 15 minutes ago
        > JavaScript was a mistake, e-commerce was a mistake, and so is everything else that came after.

        That’s a really extreme take that lacks any nuance.

        Might as well blame the OS as well for allowing any custom code to be executed.

      • cyberax 19 minutes ago
        The first Nigerian Prince scams started over email.
  • restlessforge 47 minutes ago
    I'm surprised it's only half

    There's a joke about certain princes here but I just feel bad for the people getting scammed since I know firsthand how realistic these things can seem

  • rvz 23 minutes ago
    So not only AI is consuming more energy than than the entire bitcoin network is [0], it is also accounts for more than half of cybercrimes and digital scams in Africa.

    I don't think you can even dispute this. AI will be the one to cause the next financial crisis.

    [0] https://www.cell.com/joule/abstract/S2542-4351(25)00142-4

    • gruez 11 minutes ago
      >AI will be the one to cause the next financial crisis.

      So what's the implication here? It sounds like you want AI canceled or curtailed, and if you apply the same logic to the internet in the mid 90s, you would have correctly called out the dotcom bubble. Does that we mean we should have also canceled the internet?

  • bad_haircut72 24 minutes ago
    Crypto and now AI, every new tech we make these days it seems the main utility is just to enable criminals
    • ryoshu 10 minutes ago
      In the old days porn peddlers were the pioneers of digital.
    • TacticalCoder 8 minutes ago
      > Crypto and now AI, every new tech we make these days it seems the main utility is just to enable criminals ...

      It's nearly as if there was a lesson here about some individuals in the human race?

      What was that yet about psychos? That 1% of all humans, no matter the socio-economic class, no matter the parents, are just full-on psychopaths.

      The question is: what do we do, as a society, about those who only want to harm others?

      • knicholes 4 minutes ago
        Sounds simple to me. Remove them from society.
  • simonw 35 minutes ago
    Here's the report this story is about: https://www.interpol.int/Media/Documents/Publications/Cyberc... (PDF)

    Page 24 is where the AI stuff starts being described in detail.

    • bobajeff 23 minutes ago
      >Access to this site was denied for security reasons. Please contact your network or system administrator

      Is what I see. Which makes sense I guess. Maybe just tell me how you got to the page?

  • cineticdaffodil 42 minutes ago
    [flagged]
    • tomhow 7 minutes ago
      We've banned this account. This is not what HN is for and destroys what it is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    • tomxor 8 minutes ago
      > You know about the values of a culture, if they call your old parents to rip them off.

      Large groups of people in a poor country steal from rich countries, and your explanation is a morally corrupt culture? not the obviously extremely poor prospects of it's citizens?

      > They have none, or worse they can talk themselves into this "Robin Hood" psychosis, where stealing the pension from the elderly is just fine, because they are part of the upper crust of the world.

      You're describing a cartoon character. Most of these people are trying to survive, not make some kind of twisted moral stand.

      Please try to recognise the privilege your place of birth affords you and how much of a global minority you are in. Incentives are everything here.

    • nkrisc 9 minutes ago
      Whatever country you live in, I guarantee you have homegrown criminals from your culture too.