The growing maturity of artificial intelligence (AI) has benefited businesses and people over the last two years since OpenAI opened their large language models vault.

While the cheers of AI’s greatness continue to proliferate across the world, the dark side is also bringing jeers from AI antagonists, pessimists, and especially victims of technology fraud like deepfake. They do have good reason.

Deepfakes are AI-generated multimedia files that mimic someone’s likeness, often with malicious intent, as seen in a notable video of former U.S. President Barack Obama delivering a speech he never gave.

Closer to home, in Singapore, deepfake recently reminded everyone of its impact.

Deepfake Attacks Rising in Asia

Just last month, ministers of Singapore, public servants, and public healthcare staff “received extortionary emails containing fake obscene images of themselves,” according to a report by Channel NewsAsia.

A week before that, the Singapore Sports School was also in the limelight for the wrong reasons when students in the school used deepfake technology to edit fake nudes of their schoolmates.

These are not just two isolated cases, as many have come before and many more are still hiding in private group chats and the dark web. Twisted uses of deepfakes are happening around the world because the tools to create deepfakes have become widely available. In Asia, it’s a burgeoning, huge problem.

According to Sumsub’s annual identity fraud report, South Korea saw a significant rise – a whopping 734% in deepfake attacks in 2024. Singapore and Cambodia each saw a 240% increase in cases.

The rise in cases is partly fueled by the rapid growth of the digital economy in these countries, where increasing online activity provides more data for exploitation.

Laws serve to deter but reactive

These alarming statistics justify growing concerns about AI misuse for illicit purposes and highlight the need to revisit AI regulations. However, laws aren’t usually fast enough to deliver justice.

“Laws often lag behind the pace at which fraudsters adopt new technologies. Regulators in APAC have been adopting a more careful approach to avoid stifling innovation, which is crucial for fostering growth in the region’s tech landscape. However, finding the right balance is essential; Singapore’s proactive approach offers valuable lessons for other jurisdictions in the region,” said James Lee, Legal Director, APAC, Sumsub.

How then can one protect themselves?

Near impossible to stop deepfake

Truth be told, it is almost impossible to reduce our digital footprint in this era. The more content we create, the more data attackers have to develop more realistic deepfakes of us, and social media companies aren’t helping.

“Unfortunately, social media and news platforms lack adequate technology to differentiate between downloaded, generated, or original content, posing a significant risk of enabling the spread of disinformation – as well as risks to both personal reputation and financial security,” said James.

This means that we are on our own to minimise our risk. One way is to be mindful of the platforms we use when sharing our photos, videos, and audio. While it’s fun in the moment of curiosity, we need to be aware of how this voluntary sharing can lead to repercussions.

Deepfakes are not going away anytime soon, and as they ride on the capabilities of advanced technology, they will only become harder to detect. To protect ourselves, we must stay vigilant about what we share online, educate ourselves on the risks of emerging cybercrimes, and advocate for stronger laws and technological safeguards.