Four Days to Make Victims Fall in Love: How Global Scammers Use US Tech to Fleece People
An AP investigation found scammers used ChatGPT, Gemini and Starlink to automate fraud and route traffic through U.S.-linked internet infrastructure.
- An AP/FRONTLINE investigation found American technology and infrastructure are powering industrial-scale cyberscams in Southeast Asia, a crime the Federal Trade Commission estimates cost Americans nearly $200 billion in 2024.
- Despite a widely publicized crackdown last fall, scammers continue using Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet from new Myanmar compounds, with International Justice Mission data showing at least 25 sites appearing or growing since October 2025.
- One in five signals from sanctioned Myanmar scam compounds is carried by U.S. internet service providers including Cogent Communications and Oracle, while criminals exploit AI models like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini to manipulate victims.
- U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro leads a new Scam Center Strike Force disrupting criminal infrastructure, though critics argue tech companies lack financial incentives to proactively prevent scams.
- While the United Kingdom, European Union, Australia, and Singapore have introduced regulations requiring companies to prevent scams or face penalties, lawmakers in Washington have asked American tech firms to cooperate on a voluntary basis.
50 Articles
50 Articles
Four days to make victims fall in love: How global scammers use US AI and tech to steal millions
The instructions were clear: He had four days to make each victim fall in love.And there were a lot of victims. Online, Safeer Mohammed Koorimannil, an Indian man from Kerala who was trafficked to a scam center in Myanmar, impersonated a 28-year-old Singaporean woman named Ella.On a typical shift, he said, he chatted with more than 100 people across dozens of profiles at the same time, as supervisors prowled among the desks with electric batons.…
The Washington Post
Takeaways from AP/'FRONTLINE' investigation into how US tech is abused for global scams
Technology from American companies is being used to power a revolution in the scam industry, playing a key role in the industrialization and globalization of fraud in ways that have not been clear until now, an AP/“FRONTLINE” investigation has found
Associated Press News
Methodology for AP/'FRONTLINE' investigation into how US tech is abused for global scams
The AP/“FRONTLINE” investigation was based on tens of thousands of leaked scam center files, videos and photos; an analysis with C4ADS of misuse of artificial intelligence at scam centers; an examination of more than 200,000 connections made by devices at four scam compounds in Myanmar linked to ent
The Toronto Star
The RecordTakeaways from AP/‘FRONTLINE’ investigation into how US tech is abused for global scams
American technology and American companies are being used to power a revolution in the cyberscam industry, playing key roles in the industrialization and globalization of fraud in ways that have
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- 60% of the sources lean Left
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