SINGAPORE: A whole-of-society approach is needed to detect, disrupt and deter cybercriminal activity amid an increase in scams and other activities that have seen victims lose millions, Interpol said on Wednesday (June 17).
The international police organisation said in the Asia and South Pacific Cyberthreat Assessment report that member countries need to implement measures such as improving cloud security, to further strengthen its cybercrime response capabilities. They should also invest in continuous user education on emerging threats, and work with industry partners on real-time threat intelligence sharing.
The report, which collates data from 18 member countries across Asia and South Pacific from January 2024 to March 2025, noted that several member countries had taken proactive steps to strengthen their responses to cybercrime. Of the surveyed countries, 66.7 per cent had adopted AI tools and systems for predictive analysis, digital forensics and threat detection.
Some also strengthened their cybercrime legislation and invested in cybercrime capabilities, digital forensics infrastructure and specialised law enforcement units.
The report comes after data – provided by a private sector partner working with Interpol – showed that more than 6.5 billion cyberthreats were detected and mitigated across Asia and the South Pacific region between January and December 2024.
Online scams and phishing continued to have the highest volume of reported cases, with scammers now making use of targeted spear-phishing, SMS-based phishing, and AI-generated messages.
Spear-phishing is a targeted cyberattack where criminals send personalised messages to trick a person or an organisation into revealing sensitive data, downloading malware or transferring funds.
Among the countries that were surveyed, 33 per cent of member countries reported over 10,000 cases of online scams. Several of these countries had losses of over US$100,000 (S$128,300).
In Singapore, $913.1 million was lost to scams in 2025, with 37,308 reported cases.
The second most common cybercrime was information-stealer malware and banking trojans, which are malware disguised as legitimate software that steals financial credentials. This was followed by ransomware, misinformation, manipulation and deepfake-related crimes, as well as business e-mail compromise.
“The findings in this report highlight a rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape across Asia and the South Pacific, where cybercriminals are leveraging artificial intelligence, ransomware-as-a-service models and sophisticated social engineering techniques on an industrial scale.
“As digital adoption accelerates across the region, strengthening operational cooperation, information sharing and cyber resilience remains essential to protecting communities and critical infrastructure,” said Interpol’s Cybercrime director Neal Jetton.
Scams are increasingly using AI-generated content such as manipulated audio, visuals, messages and automated interactions that simulate legitimate communication. These innovations power large-scale scam ecosystems, including fake job offers, investment traps, romance baiting and identity fabrication.
Between February and June 2024, discussions about deepfakes on cybercriminal forums and Telegram channels that are popular among South-east Asian threat actors increased by 600 per cent.
In March 2025, a finance director of a multinational corporation in Singapore lost over $670,000 after being duped by scammers, who used deepfake impersonations of the company’s chief executive officer and chief financial officer during a Zoom call.
Increasingly, criminal networks are using AI to plan schemes to traffic people into forced participation in scam activities, and recruiting victims through deceptive job advertisements.
To combat these cybercriminals, law enforcement in some countries have begun using AI tools and systems. These include predictive analytics, digital forensics, threat detection, and real-time intelligence processing, which allow agencies to respond faster to threats. - The Straits Times/ANN
