Global police agency, Interpol says that it is preparing for the risks that online immersive environments, the “metaverse" could create in form of new kinds of cybercrime while bolstering the already existing forms of cybercrime.
Countries that are a member of Interpol have since been raising concerns on how to prepare for potential metaverse crime. Interpol's executive director for technology and innovation, Madan Oberoi told Reuters that, “some of the crimes may be new to this medium, some of the existing crimes will be enabled by the medium and taken to a new level."
According to Oberoi, augmented reality and virtual reality could affect how phishing and scams operate. Additionally, he stated that concerns over child safety were also present.
Virtual reality, as per Oberoi could aid crime in the physical world, “If terror group wants to attack a physical space they may use this space to plan and simulate and launch their exercises before attacking” he added.
Earlier this October, Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency stated in a report that threat groups in the future may use virtual worlds for propaganda, recruitment, and training. The report added that users may as well create virtual worlds with “extremist rules.”
According to Europol, if the metaverse environment detects users' interactions on a blockchain, “this might make it possible to follow everything someone does based on one interaction with them- providing valuable information for stalkers or extortionists.”
Since 2021, Metaverse has been a tech buzzword, with company giants and investors claiming that the virtual world environments will advance in popularity, marking a new stage in the internet’s development. Marking its shift towards the idea, Facebook, in October 2021 announced renaming the giant to “Meta.”
But thus far, there are few indications that this vision will come true. As the stock price of Meta fell on Thursday, investors expressed skepticism about making bets in the metaverse.
Sales of blockchain-based assets, that represent virtual land and other digital possessions have also witnessed a plunge after a period of frenetic growth last year.
