What happens when it becomes almost impossible to spot a scam, even for experts?

If you can spot the signs, you can stop the crimes. But what happens when it becomes virtually impossible to spot a scam?

With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and new technologies, scams have become increasingly sophisticated and harder to spot.

At the recent Global Anti-Scam Summit Asia 2024 in October, anti-scam experts from around the world were tested to see if they could differentiate between real and AI videos of other participants at the event.

The room of about 100 people, consisting of those in law enforcement, banks and the world’s biggest tech companies, were all asked to stand.

They were then shown one video at a time and made to state after each video whether they thought it was real or was made with AI. If they got it wrong, they were asked to sit.

By the end of just three rounds, only a handful in the room were left standing, with a majority of the experts having failed to identify the fake videos.

Among those left standing was assistant director of the Singapore Police Force’s Anti-Scam Command, Assistant Commissioner (AC) of Police Aileen Yap.

But even she said that she would have not been able to spot the fake video had she not personally known one of the participants featured in it.

Scams have become a major problem in recent years, driving up crime rates globally.

It has also become increasingly lucrative for criminals, with the staggering amount of money lost by victims now in the trillions.

The Global Anti-Scam Alliance’s (Gasa) Asia Scam Report 2024 found that in Asia, more than US$688.42 billion (S$913.8 billion) was lost to scams in the past year alone.

A previous study conducted by Gasa with data service provider ScamAdviser found that scammers stole an estimated US$1.02 trillion globally between August 2022 and August 2023.

In Singapore, more than $2.7 billion has been lost to scams since 2019. To put this number into perspective, it would be the equivalent of 90 good class bungalows, assuming each property is worth about $30 million.

The numbers are expected to rise even higher, with victims losing a record of more than $385.6 million in the first half of 2024.

The Singapore authorities have been trying to fight the scourge by introducing laws and regulations, and running campaigns to raise awareness.

In 2020, the National Crime Prevention Council collaborated with the Singapore Police Force to launch an anti-scam campaign with the tagline: “Spot the Signs. Stop the Crimes.”

It focused on educating the public on how to spot the various signs of scams, including looking out for deals that are too good to be true and e-commerce sellers who are not verified.

The campaign was given the refreshed tagline of “I can ACT against scams” in 2023, with the ACT acronym outlining how members of the public can add security features, check for signs and tell the authorities and others about scams.

But scammers read the news and advisories too, and have repeatedly shown they are able to quickly adapt and find new ways to bypass anti-scam checks.

By the time the advisories on how to avoid scams have been drilled into the public, scammers would have already come up with new tricks to make victims part with their money.

With new technologies and AI added to the mix, it becomes even harder for the authorities to keep up.

Mr Jorij Abraham, Gasa’s managing director, gave several examples of how anti-scam measures have been thwarted.

He said that previously, people were told they could tell whether a website was safe by checking that it begins with “https” instead of “http”, meaning the site is secured using a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.

“But now SSL certificates are free, and every scam site has an SSL certificate,” he said.

He noted that some anti-scam campaigns tell people to check product reviews to avoid e-commerce scams, but said this is also not effective as scammers can now easily put up fake reviews.

He said: “We now know that 20 to 30 per cent of product reviews are fake, so it’s also not a good check.”

In the case of love scams and job scams, Mr Abraham said the general belief is that scammers will not show their faces.

But this, too, has been debunked.

Recounting an incident that happened earlier in 2024, he said Gasa had done a video job interview with a person who turned out to be a scammer masking his real face using AI.

So brazen are these criminals now that they would attempt to trick a global anti-scam outfit.

While AI poses challenges, some scammers do not even bother hiding their real faces now because they are outside of victims’ jurisdictions.

Mr Abraham said: “They can use the AI fakes, or simply show their real face because they know the victim doesn’t even know who or where they really are. (The scammers) don’t care.”

He said it is only going to get more difficult to recognise scams, and that it would require governments and institutions to take responsibility to protect consumers on an infrastructural level.

Recently, Singapore introduced a new framework to have financial institutions and telcos be accountable to scam victims by taking steps to prevent scams, or bear the full amount of victims’ losses.

While this is a step in the right direction, scammers know that some of these organisations have no impetus to go beyond what is required of them.

The next wave of successful scams will most likely find a way to bypass these safeguards and be very difficult to spot.

When that happens, victims will ultimately be left with little to no recourse, and may have to bear the full brunt of the losses.

Even if they make a police report, the odds of getting their money back are very low.

The Anti-Scam Command reported that it managed to recover about $54 million of the $385.6 million lost to scams in the first half of 2024.

This tabulates to a recovery rate of about 15 per cent.

In 2022, AC Yap told the media that once the money is transferred out of Singapore, it is as good as gone.

To help mitigate losses, the banks introduced the money lock initiative, which allows users to lock up a specified portion of their funds.

That money can be withdrawn only in person at a bank branch or at an ATM, preventing people from losing all of their savings should they fall for a scam.

OCBC, DBS Bank and UOB rolled out the feature in November 2023. Maybank, Standard Chartered, Citibank and HSBC followed in June.

The effectiveness of the initiative has already been proven, with the first case of the money lock feature thwarting scammers reported in September.

It is key to note that such initiatives do not prevent one from getting scammed, but are safeguards in the event that one does fall prey.

Mr Abraham said it is now inevitable that one will fall victim to scams, unless one chooses to live life without taking a single risk.

He said: “(It happens) when you’re tired, you’re not paying attention, you’re stressed. It’s just finding the right moment.

“I really believe any person can get scammed. If you haven’t been scammed, then you probably haven’t taken any risks and lived.”

Source: Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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