INTERPOL Warns Phishing, Ransomware, and AI Scams Are Rising Across Asia-Pacific
Summary: INTERPOL's 2025/2026 Asia and South Pacific Cyberthreat Assessment Report found a "dramatic increase" in cybercrime across the region, with phishing the most widespread and financially damaging form and a third of countries reporting more than 10,000 cases between January 2024 and March 2025. The region recorded more than 135,000 ransomware-related attacks in 2024, concentrated in real estate, manufacturing, and financial services, while organized crime groups in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos used deepfakes in "romance baiting" scams that INTERPOL ties to $37 billion in regional cybercrime losses.
Key Takeaway: Over half of INTERPOL member countries say cybercrime accounts for at least 30% of all recorded national crime, and the scam centers driving it run on forced labor and AI personas - an industrial operation, not a scattered set of actors.
Read the original at The Hacker News ↗
- Topics
- Phishing & Social Engineering
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