A recent investigation by the Associated Press and FRONTLINE found that American tech companies’ tools and internet infrastructure are being used to fuel a global scam industry. Scammers are using AI models and other technologies to target victims around the world, with some scam compounds in Myanmar using software built with artificial intelligence models from American tech companies.

Scammers’ Tactics

One scammer, Safeer Mohammed Koorimannil, was trafficked to a scam center in Myanmar and impersonated a 28-year-old Singaporean woman named Ella. He chatted with over 100 people across dozens of profiles at the same time, targeting victims from at least 17 countries. The investigation found that scammers are using AI models to build specialized software that allows them to seamlessly work across dozens of languages and target victims around the world.

The investigation also found that a sophisticated, global internet infrastructure supports Myanmar’s scam compound economy, with services from companies like Cogent Communications, AT&T, DigitalOcean, and Oracle. Elon Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, is the number one internet service provider in Myanmar, including to scam centers.

Regulatory Response

Cybersecurity experts say that internet service providers, AI companies, and Starlink could do more to prevent the abuse by scammers, but lack the legal, regulatory, and business incentives to crack down on the crime. Some countries, like the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, and Singapore, have introduced new regulations that require companies to do more to prevent scams.

In the US, lawmakers and government officials have been asking American tech companies to cooperate to cut scammers off from US infrastructure, but on a voluntary basis. The District of Columbia US Attorney Jeanine Pirro created the Scam Center Strike Force to target scam compounds, and in a four-day exercise in May, the Strike Force worked with Meta, SpaceX, Google, and others to disrupt over 1.4 million social media and email accounts linked to Southeast Asian scam networks.

Original reporting: NBC4 Los Angeles — read the source article.