Original article (in Croatian) was published on 17/9/2025; Author: Ivica Kristović
Organized crime is recruiting young forces online, charging its services in cryptocurrency, and using AI tools to create fake photos and videos.
In early June, a woman from Zagreb in her sixties was shocked by a call she received on a landline at work: on the other side of the phone, the voice of her crying daughter was telling her that she urgently needed help.
According to the Index portal, the conversation was then taken over by a “doctor,” who told the mother that her daughter needed urgent surgery and the implantation of a “golden plate.” He claimed that only one such plate existed in Croatia and asked for money to obtain it. Fearing for the health of her daughter, given that the “doctor” told her that she might contract sepsis, the woman immediately went to the bank, withdrew the money and later that day handed it to an elderly man in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art.
“Even though she started to realize it was a scam while driving [to the bank], she heard her child crying and assumed that I was healthy and well, but that I had been kidnapped,” her daughter told Index.
Meanwhile, her daughter was cooking lunch at home, she was not kidnapped, nor did she need an expensive “golden plate” to save herself from sepsis.
What did the woman from Zagreb hear when she answered the phone? She heard a recording of her crying daughter’s voice that was generated by artificial intelligence tools. And while her daughter’s voice wasn’t real, scammers that use this new technology more and more often are very real.
Crime in the age of the Internet
In this year’s EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment, Europol warned of the fact that faster development of technologies powered by artificial intelligence is changing the present, but will also play an important role in the future of crime in Europe. The report, produced by Europol every four years, “offers comprehensive, forward-looking insights into serious and organised crime and terrorism in the EU”.
“Key crime areas that pose the highest level of threat to the EU will be further exacerbated by the changing nature of serious and organised crime. What stands out today, and will prove even more important in the future, is the way in which serious and organized crime has an increasing destabilizing effect, is increasingly occurring online and is strongly accelerated by artificial intelligence and other new technologies. In the fight against serious and organized crime that is tailored to future needs, this change in pattern must be taken into account,” the introduction of the report states.
It is clear from the report that organized and serious crime is increasingly moving to the Internet, and its activities in this area are facilitated by artificial intelligence tools. The Internet has also given organized crime a simpler way to connect, as well as an easier way to avoid traditional borders that were some kind of obstacle to it before global networking.
“Crime is increasingly taking place on the Internet, i.e. criminal networks exploit digital and Internet infrastructure. More and more criminal activities are taking place online, which allows for greater scale and reach. The digital space serves as a tool that enables organized crime, increases its volume or conceals it. Some digital tools, such as dedicated encrypted communication platforms, have been designed by criminals for other criminals, while some other criminal networks misuse online communication applications to protect them from prosecution,” states the report, followed by an explanation of how AI tools are becoming a superstructure of online crime.
AI-powered organised crime
“Accelerating crime with artificial intelligence and other new technologies: artificial intelligence and other new technologies such as blockchain or quantum computing will accelerate serious and organised crime in line with their rapid development. They are a catalyst for crime, and drive criminal operations’ efficiency by amplifying their speed, reach, and sophistication”, the report states.
In its report, Europol paid great attention to the way in which organised crime exploits AI tools. They state that the development of a generative AI model drastically reduces barriers to entry into the sphere of digital crime. Criminals can now create messages in multiple languages, target victims with greater precision globally, create sophisticated malware, and even create child sexual exploitation materials (CSAM).
By creating highly realistic synthetic media, criminals are able to deceive victims, impersonate individuals and discredit or blackmail targets. The addition of AI-powered voice cloning and live video deepfakes amplifies the threat, enabling new forms of fraud, extortion, and identity theft,” Europol states.
What is particularly problematic is that the tools to create such content have now become easily accessible, and their use does not require special skills.
“The accessibility of AI tools has multiplied the volume of CSAM available online, creating challenges in the analysis of imagery and identification of offenders”, the report states.
Two arrests in Croatia as part of Kidflix shutdown
The report also states that the way children are sexually exploited is changing because generative artificial intelligence is used to create materials that contain sexual abuse of children, as well as highly protected online communities of offenders, and to enable the increasingly widespread online grooming of children.
“It is extremely simple to generate content, it is extremely simple to use your face on another body, and it is extremely difficult for a person who has no knowledge to recognize whether such content is true or not. This has a huge impact on mental health, and victims feel the consequences throughout their lives. Because you cannot prove that it is not you, and that is why it is important for law enforcement institutions to have the tools to combat this phenomenon”, said Edvardas Sileris, head of Europol’s Cybercrime Centre in Europol’s AI crime podcast.
As part of the fight against this new form of crime, this year Europol carried out an action to shut down Kidflix – the largest child sexual exploitation platform with almost 2 million users.
“The investigation identified almost 1,400 suspects around the world. Among them, 79 perpetrators have been arrested so far for sharing and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Some of the arrested not only posted and watched videos, but also abused children,” the Ministry of the Interior stated in April, revealing that “Croatia also conducted two criminal investigations in which it was found that the perpetrators used a digital platform intended for committing crimes to the detriment of children.”
The Kidflix platform was created in 2021 by a cybercriminal who made huge profits on it, as it quickly became one of the most popular platforms among paedophiles. According to the authorities, while the platform was active, 91,000 unique videos were uploaded and shared, totalling 6,288 hours. On average, 3.5 new videos are uploaded to the platform every hour. Many of the perpetrators were unknown to police prior to the investigation.
Danish man sold AI-generated child exploitation videos through the platform
This year, Europol also carried out an action in which 25 people were arrested around the world for sharing videos of child sexual exploitation fully generated by artificial intelligence tools. The main suspect was a Danish national who ran an online platform where he distributed videos made by himself. Users paid for access to the platform where they could watch child abuse.
“They paid about 5 euros a month to access the platform and received a new folder with AI-generated material every month,” revealed Danny Van Althuis of Europol in the said podcast.
The Internet, therefore, provided a simpler way to lure children, as well as wider access to children, than traditional forms of this crime. It also made it easier to connect those who create such content and those who are willing to pay for it, while artificial intelligence enabled simpler creation of paedophile content.
Online fraud will surpass all other forms of crime
AI tools have made criminal organizations more efficient, requiring less manpower and resources. From automated phishing campaigns to large-scale cyberattacks, they can now aim more accurately and expand their reach while using fewer resources. With the possible future emergence of fully autonomous AI, Europol states that there could also exist fully AI-controlled criminal networks.
Out of the seven crime areas that will pose key threats in the future, Europol listed three that are directly related to the Internet – cyberattacks, online fraud and sexual exploitation of children. They predict that Internet fraud, which Faktograf has covered extensively in the previous years, will exceed other types of serious and organized crime in the future due to the development of artificial intelligence.
Criminal networks benefit from increasingly frequent cyberattacks and hybrid threats that target companies and state institutions, and can also be politically motivated. One way of doing this is through ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure, businesses and government agencies.
“These attacks not only generate financial revenue – often through cryptocurrency payments – but also serve to disrupt and weaken opponents by immobilising essential services, creating chaos, and undermining public trust in institutions,” the report states.
In addition, criminal organizations can steal data of strategic importance to governments and companies on behalf of clients, and sell it to those willing to pay for espionage, gaining economic advantage or enabling coercion. By commissioning criminal networks for these “jobs”, actual initiators can make it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to link them to these attacks.
“Additionally, these networks are instrumental for propaganda campaigns aimed at spreading disinformation and influencing political systems. These campaigns often involve fake social media accounts, coordinated troll operations, and manipulated news content, which serve the strategic interests of hybrid threat actors by weakening opponents from within”, the report states.
Organising criminals online
Payment of criminal acts and “money laundering”, in turn, has been simplified by the use of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. However, payment with cryptocurrencies is not only related to crimes committed online, but is also increasingly spreading to “traditional” forms of crimes such as drug trafficking and human smuggling.
Organized crime often had the problem of transferring this acquired money into legal affairs when acquiring large fortunes, and with the development of the Internet and new forms of money, this task is now easier.
“Criminal networks are increasingly investing illicit profits in a parallel financial system designed to preserve and increase the wealth gained from illicit activities. It is protected by the digital cloak of online platforms and new technologies such as blockchains, thus ushering in a new era of money laundering,” Europol stated.
Europol has also revealed that some criminal organisations have developed or make extensive use of communication platforms that use encrypted messages to hide their activity. EncroChat, Sky ECC, Ghost and others are listed as platforms used by organized crime because they are designed to allow end-to-end encryption of messages that prevents external interception. This is primarily designed to protect the privacy of users, but criminals abuse it for their activities.
According to the Europol report, the future fight against organised and serious crime will rely on hackers and other professionals whose skills will centre on a strong understanding of online processes. This report already shows that criminals recruit new members through online platforms, social networks, and gaming chats. They charge for their services using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, and they increasingly rely on artificial intelligence tools. The most challenging aspect of this is the creation of fake photos, videos, and audio recordings, which are then used for blackmail, fraud, or child exploitation.
