CryptoRom scammers use AI for fraudulent activities: Sophos

According to an official release, Sophos, a cybersecurity organisation, released new findings on CryptoRom scams, a subset of pig butchering (shā zhū pán) schemes made to trick users of dating apps into making fake cryptocurrency investments, which reported, “Sha Zhu Pan Scam Uses AI Chat Tool to Target iPhone and Android Users.” Since May, Sophos X-Ops has observed CryptoRom fraudsters refining their techniques, including adding an AI chat tool, such as ChatGPT, to their toolset.

With insights from the report, in 2022, investment fraud caused the highest losses of any scam reported by the public to the US FBI’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center (IC3), amounting to about US$3.31 billion in the US alone.