AI and new technologies have made scams almost impossible to spot, 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?

- David Sun

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.