Dark Web 'Fraud for Hire' Commercial Uncovered: Billion Dollar Industry Sells AI Tools to Criminals

A recently discovered video has exposed a vast, transnational criminal organization that has been siphoning funds from the U.S. government since the outset of the pandemic.

Furthermore, this syndicate has been profiting by trading advanced generative artificial intelligence tools with other criminals.

The video, designed for the dark web, is a scant 58 seconds. It features an individual identifying himself as “Sanchez”, dressed entirely in black, and masked with a black skeleton facepiece.

Another person appears to be digging in the background. “Yes, I sell Chase bank accounts. Yes, I am one of the first people to sell fake bank accounts four years ago,” declares “Sanchez”. “We started with my partner four years ago. Now we are about 30 people in one office.”

The discovery was made by David Maimon, a criminologist and professor at Georgia State University. He deduced from the video’s content that it was an “update to some of his concerned customers who haven’t seen him on the online underground market for a few weeks.”

Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ Government Group, informed Fox News Digital that such organizations are responsible for a significant portion of the pandemic-related fraud draining billions from the nation. They employ generative AI technology to cloak their operations while scaling their illicit activities.

Do you think it will become difficult to tell what is real with AI?

Talcove offered, “When you think of pandemic fraud, and modern-day cybercriminal fraud targeting the government, you usually think of low-level fraudsters acting alone.” But this video paints a more concerning picture.

“They’re like the street-level drug dealers who get arrested. There’s a whole machine behind them that, at this point, closely resembles the 20th century Italian mob, or modern-day drug cartels,” he continued.

The dark web is now home to a burgeoning fraud-as-a-service industry, operated by international cyber gangs spread across continents, from Russia to China. The group featured in the video goes by “Mega Darknet Market” and, according to Talcove, is among the largest of such operations globally.

The video is instrumental in understanding the sale of “mule accounts” — bank accounts opened using stolen identities — and also the trafficking of generative AI and “deepfake” tools among criminals.

“This video is proof of what I’ve been saying, that there are some very organized institutions empowering low-level fraudsters from all over the world,” Talcove asserted.

Talcove warned that these global criminal enterprises have blossomed during the pandemic, looting hundreds of millions. They could potentially extract over a trillion dollars from the U.S. government in the coming year using AI technologies.

Beyond mere financial fraud, these groups equip worldwide criminals with AI technologies to orchestrate sextortion schemes, particularly targeting the younger demographic and tragically leading to numerous suicides.

Pointing to a seismic shift in criminal tendencies, Talcove remarked, “The pandemic prompted a transformation of America’s criminals and gangs from gun-running and drug dealing to unemployment fraud, SNAP fraud, and PPP fraud. Those on the front lines, doing the dirty work can make millions. The fraud-as-a-service organizations that provide them the tools, data, and means to do so are reaping even larger profits.”

He compared the criminal landscape to the days of Al Capone, when criminals would steer clear of government entities. But post-2020, the U.S. government has become their “primary target,” with AI technologies empowering them to steal and disappear.

“With Mega Darknet Market and the many other global cybercriminal organizations that are at the top of the pyramid when it comes to stealing from the U.S. government, the police won’t catch them,” Talcove said. “They’re too sophisticated and likely not in the country.

“It will take an all-out commitment from a coalition of law enforcement agencies to catch them: Secret Service, FBI and Interpol,” he continued.

Full Interview with Haywood Talcove:

The FBI has described sextortion as a heinous crime, manipulating and coercing victims, especially minors as young as 7, into providing sexually explicit content, later threatening to disseminate it.

The FBI has seen a huge increase in cases involving children and teens being threatened and coerced into sending explicit images online—a crime called sextortion. If young people are being exploited, they are the victim of a crime and should report it. https://t.co/d1E9CnKYkr pic.twitter.com/B9mZ8RhnUZ

— FBI Baltimore (@FBIBaltimore) September 4, 2023

The latest statistics from the FBI this year have tragically recorded multiple sextortion-related suicides across the country, predominantly among males aged 10 to 17. The FBI stated that girls have also been targeted, but boys remain the most victimized demographic.

The world of artificial intelligence is certainly upon us. It has been used to do good things. It also is being used to do very dark things and has the potential to do catastrophic things. How humans manage it remains to be seen.

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