Interpol: Fraud up by 70% and will escalate further due to AI
Interpol says the increased availability of AI and sophisticated deepfake tools is spurring a surge in online fraud. Picture: iStock
Reported fraud surged by almost 70% in Europe in 2025 — the largest rise across the world, Interpol has said.
In a recently released report, the international police body estimates that the scale of fraud will “escalate significantly” over the next three to five years.
It puts this primarily down to increased availability of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and sophisticated deepfake tools that can produce convincing clones of real people’s voices and faces.
Interpol said there has been a “global surge” in AI-enhanced fraud schemes such as sextortion which, although mainly targeting adults, is also ensnaring minors.
Last month, provisional garda statistics indicated that fraud offences jumped by 73% in 2025.
That was a far greater rise than in other crime categories that went up, with most experiencing a drop in reported offences.
Coinciding with those figures, Garda HQ conducted 11 searches in seven counties targeting the notorious Nigerian organised crime group, Black Axe.
Since 2020, under Operation Skein, the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau has identified 1,400 potential suspects involved in the theft and laundering of €94m linked to this network.
To date, gardaí have arrested around 640 people as part of this operation.
Interpol’s global financial fraud threat assessment said losses from fraud across the world amounted to an estimated $442bn (€382bn) in 2025.
However, it said this estimate was a floor as there were “significant levels of under-reporting”.
Interpol said financial fraud was among the “most threatening” crimes globally, along with drug trafficking and money laundering.
The report said AI tools are constructing “highly persuasive” scams.
This includes “AI agents” that can conduct the entire fraud process — including reconnaissance of potential victims, gathering of personal credentials of targets, infiltrating computer systems, selecting the most valuable data, and generating emotive and visually alarming ransom demands.
In addition, the dark web offers fraudsters “synthetic identity kits”, complete with AI-generated video avatars, voice clones, and biometric data.
Interpol said these criminals can create convincing digital clones using “just 10 seconds” of real audio of the person.
“AI-enabled financial fraud schemes are very likely to further expand and escalate, as they are estimated to be 4.5 times more profitable than non-enhanced fraud tactics,” the report said.
Interpol also noted a significant rise in sextortion, where people are blackmailed after sharing explicit videos or images of themselves with someone they engaged with online.
Last August, Chief Superintendent Vincent O’Sullivan, of Cork County Garda Division, urged young people not to be afraid to come forward if they were victims of sextortion.
He said demands for sums of money to prevent the images being circulated online to friends and acquaintances of the targeted person can range from €500 to several thousand euro.
- Cormac O’Keeffe, Security Correspondent
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