Interpol’s recent bust of a phishing-as-a-Service platform run by cyber gang 16shop is a case of too little too late on the part of the troubled international crime agency.
Even as the cuffs were put on a 21-year-old Indonesian man accused of administering the platform, the 16shop platform was already yesterday’s news as far as up-and-coming young cyber fraudsters were concerned. AI-driven services such as FraudGPT, now widely available on the Dark Web, have quickly supplanted such phishing platforms as they can offer the same scatter-gun approach targeting a wide range of individuals while tailoring each message to the individual. AI-powered tools enable the quoting of personal and professional details and imitating the writing styles of close friends and even voices.
Though only days ago, the Interpol bust already reeks of ancient cyber history and leaves the international crime agency open to continued accusations that it has done little to tackle the rapid growth of global crime into a multi-trillion-dollar industry over the last few years. Interpol is simultaneously facing accusations that governments are abusing its system of red notices to pursue political opponents. Last Monday, the chairwoman of the British parliament’s foreign affairs committee Alicia Kearns directly accused Interpol of detaining targeted individuals on political rather than legal grounds.
“There’s no question that within the British Parliament we have grave concerns that Interpol is being abused,” says Kearns. “Whether it be for ideological reasons, whether it be for personal interests of important individuals within certain countries, whether it be to silence voices or whether it be for the domestic interests of hostile regimes.”
The reported extent of the reach of the 16shop phishing platform is further evidence of how global cybercrime has been allowed to grow while international law enforcement agencies such as Interpol have been content to sit on the sidelines while diverting much of their energies to less salubrious purposes. The platform attracted 70,000 would-be cybercriminals. Each reported to be paying $60–$150 a pop on the Dark Web.
