The agency has also seized assets worth $300 million, across 34 countries. The operation, labelled as Haechi IV, furthermore suspended over 80,000 suspicious bank accounts and cautioned governments of the onset of new types of NFT and AI scams.
Stephen Kavanagh, Interpol’s Executive Director of Police Services informs that “The seizure of USD 300 million represents a staggering sum and clearly illustrates the incentive behind today’s explosive growth of transnational organized crime[…]This vast accumulation of unlawful wealth is a serious threat to global security and weakens the economic stability of nations worldwide.”
This year, Interpol witnessed a massive 200% surge in arrests regarding incidents that involved malicious hacks.
For instance, Comcast suffered a data breach that affected around 56 million accounts, potentially resulting in the compromise of all Xfinity accounts. On Tuesday, ransomware group Rhysida leaked the upcoming Marvel video game from PlayStation, along with the passport information of the game’s developers. Also, last month, 23andMe suffered a loss of biodata of 6.9 million customers in a hack.
In this recent Interpol operation, e-commerce, corporate email compromise, and investment fraud accounted for the majority of the arrests. Haechi IV, however, informed participating nations about two cutting-edge strategies employed by cybercriminals. Interpol discovered that investment fraud, online sexual extortion, and impersonation scams all over the UK were using AI-generated content on multiple occasions. The technology of voice cloning was frequently employed to mimic someone who the victims knew.
Another cyber scam tactic noticed by Interpol that was used in the NFT attacks was very commonly adopted by cybercriminals in South Korea, where victims are promised substantial returns on their investments. However, following the initial investment, these spoof cryptocurrency ventures are frequently dropped. These two con games make use of modern technology and people's shallow knowledge of the subject. "Persistent challenge of cyber-enabled crime, reminding us to stay alert and keep refining our tactics against online fraud," according to Kavanagh, is demonstrated by the 200% increase in arrests.
