Matthew RosenquistFounder & CISO Advisor, Cybersecurity Insights · CISO, Cybersecurity Strategist, & Industry Advisor

Cybercriminals are Winning with AI

19 Mar 2026 · 2 min

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2:19

In this monologue, Matthew Rosenquist warns that AI has become the most powerful tool for financial fraud since the internet, dramatically increasing profitability and lowering the barrier to entry for criminals. Citing an Interpol report, he notes AI‑enhanced fraud is about 4.5 × more profitable than traditional methods, making it a strong lure for opportunistic and less‑skilled actors. AI enables highly personalized, multilingual phishing and dynamic real‑time conversations, scaling attacks across large audiences while breaking previous resource constraints. It also supercharges sextortion through realistic deepfakes, opening new revenue streams. Because AI continuously learns, its effectiveness will improve over time, outpacing current cybersecurity adaptations. Rosenquist concludes with a call to individual vigilance: apply critical thinking, follow best practices, and reduce the risk of becoming a victim.

Chapters

AI is the most powerful tool for financial fraud since the invention of the internet. And as predicted, criminals are taking full advantage. Early metrics are telling with the latest Interpol report on global financial fraud that highlights AI-enhanced fraud is 4.5 times more profitable than traditional methods. Now imagine being able to earn over 4 times what you do now just by using AI. That is a powerful lure for cybercriminals. And this is just the beginning. Using AI lowers the bar for entry, so less sophisticated and wannabe criminals can use AI tools to conduct sophisticated phishing and fraud. It makes cybercrime look more attractive to opportunists. AI is a powerful tool that improves the quality of fraud messages and impersonation attempts, making them more convincing and successful at victimizing targets. It enables highly personalized messages and dynamic conversations in real time. It does it in local language across platforms, covering a wide range of topics and manipulating techniques. It increases the scalability to attack large numbers with those customized fraudulent engagements. Breaking previous barriers of resource constraints. It also supercharges sextortion with generated deepfakes that can be highly disturbing. And that means it's a new avenue to generate revenue from victims. Strategically, this gets worse over time, as one of the most powerful aspects of AI is its continuous learning capabilities that will refine its effectiveness and targeting of victims over time. Cybersecurity is adapting, but it will take time before the tooling, the processes, and the behaviors truly adapt. Each of us is a potential target, so take extra caution, apply critical thinking, align to best practices, and reduce your chance of being the next victim.