Last month at the RSA Conference, Netcraft unveiled a groundbreaking AI-driven platform that aims to outsmart cybercriminals by infiltrating their schemes and disrupting their malicious activities. Ryan Woodley, CEO of the London-based company, highlighted the acute pain conversational scams cause to financial institutions and individuals worldwide.
A month later, Netcraft revealed significant findings from its AI-driven interactions with scammers. The platform uncovered thousands of money mule bank accounts across 73 countries and identified cryptocurrency wallets holding over $45 million. One conversation alone yielded 17 mule accounts.
Conversational scams, ranging from investment schemes to romance frauds, involve cybercriminals building trust with victims through prolonged online interactions, often lasting over 47 days and exchanging dozens of messages. The FBI reported $5.47 billion in losses from such scams last year, with $3.96 billion tied to cryptocurrency.
Netcraft’s platform allowed for uncovering the extent of these scams, which reveals connections to mule accounts, crypto wallets, and other components of the large-scale network of malicious infrastructure. Once impostors claimed that they unlocked $5 million in inheritance for the customer, the particular incident involved 17 accounts from 12 financial institutions. It bogged down the scammers with large volumes of irrelevant data and questions while it gained a gold mine of information.
The success of AI shows how emergent and effective strategies are a much-needed solution to the increasing problem of online scams. The same is true to say about Netcraft’s approach that not only poses threats to such unlawful proceedings but also offers valuable information to help protect potential victims from all over the world.
