Counterfeit banknotes, AI fraud and the Corruption Perception Index

According to the German Federal Bank, the number of counterfeit euro banknotes in circulation in Germany increased in 2023. The authorities confiscated approximately 56,600 banknotes with a theoretical value of EUR 5.1 million. Compared to 2022, counterfeit banknotes increased by 28%, and the nominal value increased by 90%. According to calculations by the Bundesbank, in 2023 in Germany there were seven counterfeit banknotes per 10,000 inhabitants. Germans are still willing to pay in cash (almost 60% of purchases) much more often than, for example, the Dutch (11% of transactions).

The Hong Kong branch of one of the international companies lost USD 25.6 million. After the action of fraudsters who used deepfake technology, pretending to be the company’s financial director, and ordered money transfers to given account numbers during a video conference. Everyone on the video call, except the victim, was fake. Police did not publicly disclose the name of the company but admitted that from July to September 2023, there were at least 20 incidents in which deepfake AI was used to fool facial recognition programs to register a total of 144 loan applications, as well as bank accounts, by imitating the owners of ID cards based on the photos on the documents.

According to the Corruption Perceptions Index 2023 by Transparency International, the countries in the world least exposed to corruption in the opinion of experts and public opinion are Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway and Singapore. Poland was ranked 47th out of 180 classified countries. Somalia, Venezuela and Syria fared the worst. It is believed that more than ⅔ of the countries in the world have a serious problem with corruption.