AI has established itself as a useful tool in the daily lives of many people, but it is not all benefits. According to Central axisin Mexico artificial intelligence would be facilitating criminal actions, especially in the field of cybercrimes such as extortion, fraud and identity theft.
Salvador Guerrero, president of the Citizen Council of Mexico City, pointed out that criminals use artificial intelligence to create fictitious situations that result in extortion, such as fraudulent procedures, harassing, labor, professional or sexual abuse of a person, as well as to obtain additional information about the victim and further harm them.
In addition, he highlighted that cybercriminals can alter photos, videos or audio in order to harm people’s assets or reputation.
Between January and October 2023, the Citizen Council recorded an increase in cases of identity theft, reaching more than 1,600 reports. More than triple, compared to 505 in the same period last year.
Citizen Council reports detail that identity theft victims were hacked in various ways. 62.3% of the cases involved the hacking or theft of information, while 26.1% were related to the hacking or theft of cell phones. Additionally, 2.1% of victims suffered theft, card cloning or signature forgery, and 1% recklessly shared information, such as photographs.
The most used modalities
The methods of extortion have also evolved, with telephone calls being the main means used in 98% of cases, followed by illegitimate collection with 42.7%.
Threats (12.1%), alleged members of criminal organizations (8.3%), sextortion (6.2%), virtual kidnapping (2.8%), right of ownership (2%) and accusations of infidelity (0.6%) are some of the tactics used .
These alarming data highlight the urgent need to implement preventative and educational measures to protect against identity theft and extortion.