Europe’s older generation is becoming a prime target in the AI scam era, as fraudsters use deepfake voices, fake identities and increasingly sophisticated online manipulation to reach millions of victims, according to Interpol’s latest report.
Nick Court, a senior City of London Police officer serving as assistant director at Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, told Euractiv the response must begin by dropping the stigma around victims. Shaming older people who are deceived by increasingly advanced scams, he argues, only helps criminals operate in silence.
Europe saw the strongest growth in fraud alerts worldwide, up 69% in Interpol’s latest report. Why is fraud rising so sharply across the continent?
Europe’s relative wealth has always made it attractive to fraudsters. But fraud itself is now increasing significantly, as is law enforcement’s will to tackle it with an increasing number of red notices.
Is loneliness or lack of digital skills becoming a security vulnerability in Europe’s ageing society?
During the COVID pandemic, loneliness increased, and fraud rose significantly at the same time.
Loneliness matters, but even people with family and friends nearby can be targeted. In a similar way to how the suspect in a domestic violence case might prevent his or her partner from talking to their to their parents about what’s going on, criminals here often try to exacerbate loneliness by discouraging victims from speaking or seeking outside advice.
Which countries are most exposed, and where are the main hubs behind these scams?
Historically, countries with widely spoken languages such as English, French or Spanish were targeted more often. But AI translation and language tools now allow criminals to operate effectively in almost any language, with better grammar, spelling and credibility.
There are highly sophisticated international criminal organisations running major scam compounds in West Africa and, more recently, in Southeast Asia, where many workers have been trafficked and forced to commit fraud under threats of injury or death. Europe has also had smaller investment fraud operations. But fraud can now be run from almost anywhere with internet access.
How is technology changing the threat operationally?
It used to be enough to say, “If they won’t video call you, they’re probably fake.”
That no longer works. They can video call and look authentic, so protecting yourself has become more difficult and requires new habits.
Do telecom companies and social media platforms bear greater responsibility when fraud starts on their systems?
I think they have significant responsibility, and I believe they could do more. I think the amount of computing power and technology that those companies have means that they certainly have the means to identify potential issues, and I would prefer them to be doing more to act against it, to try to identify potential vulnerabilities and bad actors.
What are the types of scams old people should be particularly careful about?
Romance fraud has been an issue for decades and is now getting easier for the criminals to undertake. Investment fraud is also significant. Those two things used to be separate, but increasingly, the two overlap.
A scam may begin with social or romantic contact online, then evolve into an investment fraud once trust has been built. For example, the supposed love interest claims they became wealthy through crypto or another investment and encourages the victim to do the same.
We’re also seeing scams evolve into sextortion: if criminals cannot obtain money through romance or investment fraud, they may threaten to release intimate images unless they are paid.
How can victims identify warning signs?
Criminals can pretend to be almost anyone: banks, tax authorities, police, family members, company executives, even strangers claiming to know you. But the main issue is not who they claim to be. It is what they ask you to do. Not every scam relies on urgency, but it can also be a warning sign.
For instance, in romance fraud, once trust is built, there is often a sudden crisis: a medical emergency, visa issue, airport problem, or family tragedy requiring money. In family impersonation scams, a supposed relative may claim they’ve been arrested, lost their phone or urgently need funds.
There was a famous case in France where a woman was extorted €830,000, believing she was in a relationship with a movie star who wanted their relationship to be kept secret. Why do people fall into these traps when it seems so obvious to others?
I don’t like the use of the expression “fall for it”, and I think it’s something which is important because we don’t say that victims of sexual offences have fallen for it. If I have my house burgled, I didn’t fall for myself being burgled, and the reason it matters to me is that the people we need to focus on are the criminals. They’re the ones committing the crime. They’re the ones doing something wrong. And they are sadly often very, very good at their job.
Does this type of prejudice lead to underestimates of fraud?
If we keep this narrative of victims having done something wrong, it means that they are potentially less likely to report it to the police, to their friends and family, which means they can’t gather around those who can help them come through it.
That means we don’t know the true scale of the problem. That affects government priorities. In some European countries, fraud is the highest-volume crime category, representing at times 35–40% of all crime. That means you are statistically more likely to meet a fraud victim than a victim of many other offences.
But then, coming back to your question about why it happens, I think it’s human nature fundamentally. We’re almost pre-programmed sometimes to respond to certain types of people. We vote for politicians that, a few years later, we decide we shouldn’t have voted for, or we believe in causes that we decide later weren’t the best causes, so we may get into relationships which are unhealthy for us, and we only realise that later. Criminals are very, very good at exploiting this.
On a personal level, what motivates you every day to do this work?
Early in my career as a detective in London, I worked directly with fraud victims. I spoke to them, met their families and saw the emotional and financial damage these crimes cause.
I also met the offenders. In many cases, they were not people driven by desperation or addiction. They had made a conscious decision to commit a crime.
So that’s really what motivates me, because I know that it’s a type of crime that’s entirely based on the greed of criminals and has a really devastating effect.
Nick Court was seconded to Interpol in 2020 from the City of London Police, Britain’s national lead force for fraud and cyber-crime. He is currently Acting Director of the Interpol Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, overseeing the organisational response to fraud, money laundering, asset recovery and corruption.
Prior to joining Interpol, Nick led the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit in London. Previously he held varied law enforcement positions in local, regional and national agencies in the UK and has experience within the fields of intelligence analysis and the investigation of terrorism and fraud. He is also an experienced hostage and crisis negotiator.
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Source:
www.euractiv.com