The world's police agency says Mexico's most dangerous cartel is expanding beyond drugs thanks to artificial intelligence.
A new report from INTERPOL says the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is using AI to expand its financial fraud and human trafficking operations --- using one to advance the other.
"This is not your parents' or even your grandparents' cartel activity," says Robert Almonte, former U.S. marshal and retired deputy chief of the El Paso Police Department in Texas.
He tells NewsNation that one example of how the two crimes intersect is the cartels forcing people who think they're doing a legitimate job to break the law.
"The victims actually think they're going to be working at a legitimate company doing legitimate work. And once there, they're being forced by the cartel to get involved in illegal activity: committing fraud, reaching out to other people and trying to access their financial information," he said.
INTERPOL singled out the Jalisco cartel but said European, Asian and African crime groups are also embracing AI.
Interpol says the most common frauds these days are:
- Impersonation
- Romance scams
- Tech support
- Advance payment
- Phone fraud
Almonte says most scammers play on two human needs: greed and loneliness.
One growing scam in Mexico involves reaching out to beachfront timeshare owners.
"They're saying they have somebody who wants to buy their timeshare for several thousand dollars more than they paid for it. Then the caller tells the seller: 'Well, we need a little bit of money to pay taxes and processing fees.' Then they got 'em on the hook, and they just keep taking money away from them," Almonte said.
One victim of the timeshare scam lost more than $1,000,000.
Another scam that has no boundaries is the friendly cold call in which you get a text saying, "How are you?" or something equally benign.
Almonte says that's where it begins: "They want to get you in a conversation. They want to establish a rapport with you. And then they get into conversations (asking) do you want to make some money."
Preventing that scam, he says, is simple.
"(If) you receive those kinds of messages from a number you don't recognize, just delete it. Don't even respond, just delete those messages immediately," he said.