{"id":147003,"date":"2026-08-21T07:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T07:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/147003\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T07:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T07:04:07","slug":"asia-faces-scam-epidemic-threat-as-gangs-exploit-agentic-ai-cybercrime-expert-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/147003\/","title":{"rendered":"Asia faces scam \u2018epidemic\u2019 threat as gangs exploit agentic AI, cybercrime expert warns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Online scam syndicates that rely on trafficked workers, guarded compounds and vast call-centre-style operations could soon become more threatening by exploiting agentic AI to run some fraud operations autonomously, a cybercrime expert has warned.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Unlike earlier uses of artificial intelligence to write scripts, translate messages or produce deepfakes, agentic AI systems can carry out multi-step tasks with limited human prompting, raising the prospect of scams that are faster, cheaper, more personalised and much harder for authorities to trace.<\/p>\n<p>Losses from transnational online <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/scams-and-swindles?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">scams<\/a> in Asia-Pacific tripled to US$114 billion last year from 2023, according to a United Nations report released last month.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The surge was due to an \u201cincreasingly integrated, transnational, and technologically sophisticated criminal economy\u201d that shared expertise in money laundering, human trafficking and data harvesting, the report said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Jonno Newman, a cybercrime expert with on-chain intelligence platform TRM, said the complexity of scam operations in the region could grow exponentially once criminals figured out how to use agentic AI effectively.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Newman said syndicates were already investing heavily in training agentic AI agents to become tools capable of harnessing years of data compiled by their large language model predecessors to target multiple victims across different languages.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cSo instead of one human, they can use a bot that can do the work of 10 people. You would no longer need a big fortress \u2013 a scam operation could be set up from anywhere remotely,\u201d Newman told This Week in Asia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Online scam syndicates that rely on trafficked workers, guarded compounds and vast call-centre-style operations could soon become more&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[179,7493,24,9477,45843,387,1038,20563,72238,9502,5978,40793,54919],"class_list":["post-147003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-agentic-ai","tag-agentic-ai","tag-agentic-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-asia-pacific","tag-cambodia","tag-china","tag-malaysia","tag-myanmar","tag-online-scam-syndicates","tag-philippines","tag-scammers","tag-united-nations","tag-victims"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}