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Former Hacker Turned Secret Service Consultant Warns: AI-Powered Cybercrime Is About to Get Terrifying

MarketDash Editorial Team
10 days ago
Brett Johnson spent over a decade as a criminal hacker, stealing identities and millions of dollars. Now reformed and consulting for the Secret Service, he's sounding the alarm on AI-orchestrated scams that could make traditional cybercrime look quaint. From deepfake video calls to synthetic identity fraud, the next generation of digital cons is already here.

If you want to understand where cybercrime is headed, it helps to ask someone who's been there. Brett Johnson spent more than a decade as a criminal hacker, stealing identities and pulling in millions of dollars. These days, he's on the other side, working as a consultant to the Secret Service. And his message is unsettling: the next wave of digital scams will be AI-orchestrated, highly organized, and nearly impossible to stop.

According to Johnson, cybercrime isn't just getting more sophisticated. It's getting corporate. The days of lone wolf hackers are fading fast, replaced by organized groups that use artificial intelligence to write the scams, fabricate evidence, and even interact with victims in real time.

"A criminal now doesn't have to understand any aspect of the crime," Johnson told Business Insider. "They can immediately buy tutorials, take live instruction classes, buy anything that they need online, and immediately start being successful and profitable at crime."

Think of it as cybercrime-as-a-service, with AI doing the heavy lifting.

Deepfakes Are Already Here

Johnson is especially worried about deepfakes, and for good reason. Some cybercriminals are already weaponizing the technology to create fraudulent videos and phone calls that can fool even careful victims.

Earlier this year, a finance clerk was tricked into sending more than $25 million in overseas transfers after participating in video calls that featured deepfakes of his coworkers and bosses. The fake videos were convincing enough to bypass his skepticism entirely.

The Department of Homeland Security has taken notice, releasing reports warning consumers about these digital imitations and their potential for widespread abuse. But as AI technology advances, Johnson predicts that creating deepfakes will only get easier and cheaper, making their use far more common.

"We get to the point where we're no longer able to trust anything that we see or hear in an online environment, and that becomes really dangerous," he said.

Welcome to the Scam Farm

Another growing concern is the rise of scam farms: buildings filled with workers, often coerced into participating, who run cons like it's a day job. Because essentially, it is.

These operations function like legitimate businesses, Johnson explained, complete with shifts, supervisors, and hierarchical management structures overseeing lower-level participants.

"That's something we didn't see back then," Johnson said, reflecting on his time as a criminal hacker. "Back then, you did see criminals working together, networking in a co-op type fashion. But these days it's much more organized."

It's industrialized fraud, scaled for efficiency.

Synthetic Identities: The Invisible Threat

The same AI advancements powering deepfakes are also transforming identity theft. Johnson says that synthetic identity fraud, which combines real stolen data with fabricated information, has become the number one form of identity theft worldwide.

The numbers are staggering. "It's 80% of all new account fraud," Johnson said. "It's 20% of all credit card chargebacks, 5% of all credit card debt. It's huge."

What makes synthetic identity fraud so insidious is how difficult it is to detect. The identities are "almost invisible because that person doesn't really exist," Johnson explained. Banks often only discover the fraud after the accounts have disappeared, leaving little recourse for recovery.

How to Protect Yourself

Despite the grim outlook, Johnson believes there are practical steps people can take to protect themselves from this rising tide of AI-fueled cybercrime.

First, assume every online platform has predators. That means practicing the same situational awareness online that you would walking down a dark street. If something feels off, trust your instincts and treat it as suspicious.

Second, be careful what you share on social media. Scammers love mining platforms for personal details like birthdays, pet names, or answers to common security questions. Even casual posts can give criminals the puzzle pieces they need to hack your accounts.

Third, practice good password hygiene. Don't reuse passwords across multiple platforms or websites, and enable multifactor authentication wherever possible. These steps won't make you invincible, but they raise the bar significantly for attackers.

Finally, if you suspect you've been compromised, act fast. Johnson recommends freezing the credit of everyone in your household and setting up alerts on financial accounts to catch suspicious activity early.

The internet has always had its dangers, but AI is making those dangers exponentially more sophisticated. The good news is that awareness and preparation still matter. The bad news is that the arms race between criminals and defenders just got a whole lot more complicated.

Back to News

Former Hacker Turned Secret Service Consultant Warns: AI-Powered Cybercrime Is About to Get Terrifying

MarketDash Editorial Team
10 days ago
Brett Johnson spent over a decade as a criminal hacker, stealing identities and millions of dollars. Now reformed and consulting for the Secret Service, he's sounding the alarm on AI-orchestrated scams that could make traditional cybercrime look quaint. From deepfake video calls to synthetic identity fraud, the next generation of digital cons is already here.

If you want to understand where cybercrime is headed, it helps to ask someone who's been there. Brett Johnson spent more than a decade as a criminal hacker, stealing identities and pulling in millions of dollars. These days, he's on the other side, working as a consultant to the Secret Service. And his message is unsettling: the next wave of digital scams will be AI-orchestrated, highly organized, and nearly impossible to stop.

According to Johnson, cybercrime isn't just getting more sophisticated. It's getting corporate. The days of lone wolf hackers are fading fast, replaced by organized groups that use artificial intelligence to write the scams, fabricate evidence, and even interact with victims in real time.

"A criminal now doesn't have to understand any aspect of the crime," Johnson told Business Insider. "They can immediately buy tutorials, take live instruction classes, buy anything that they need online, and immediately start being successful and profitable at crime."

Think of it as cybercrime-as-a-service, with AI doing the heavy lifting.

Deepfakes Are Already Here

Johnson is especially worried about deepfakes, and for good reason. Some cybercriminals are already weaponizing the technology to create fraudulent videos and phone calls that can fool even careful victims.

Earlier this year, a finance clerk was tricked into sending more than $25 million in overseas transfers after participating in video calls that featured deepfakes of his coworkers and bosses. The fake videos were convincing enough to bypass his skepticism entirely.

The Department of Homeland Security has taken notice, releasing reports warning consumers about these digital imitations and their potential for widespread abuse. But as AI technology advances, Johnson predicts that creating deepfakes will only get easier and cheaper, making their use far more common.

"We get to the point where we're no longer able to trust anything that we see or hear in an online environment, and that becomes really dangerous," he said.

Welcome to the Scam Farm

Another growing concern is the rise of scam farms: buildings filled with workers, often coerced into participating, who run cons like it's a day job. Because essentially, it is.

These operations function like legitimate businesses, Johnson explained, complete with shifts, supervisors, and hierarchical management structures overseeing lower-level participants.

"That's something we didn't see back then," Johnson said, reflecting on his time as a criminal hacker. "Back then, you did see criminals working together, networking in a co-op type fashion. But these days it's much more organized."

It's industrialized fraud, scaled for efficiency.

Synthetic Identities: The Invisible Threat

The same AI advancements powering deepfakes are also transforming identity theft. Johnson says that synthetic identity fraud, which combines real stolen data with fabricated information, has become the number one form of identity theft worldwide.

The numbers are staggering. "It's 80% of all new account fraud," Johnson said. "It's 20% of all credit card chargebacks, 5% of all credit card debt. It's huge."

What makes synthetic identity fraud so insidious is how difficult it is to detect. The identities are "almost invisible because that person doesn't really exist," Johnson explained. Banks often only discover the fraud after the accounts have disappeared, leaving little recourse for recovery.

How to Protect Yourself

Despite the grim outlook, Johnson believes there are practical steps people can take to protect themselves from this rising tide of AI-fueled cybercrime.

First, assume every online platform has predators. That means practicing the same situational awareness online that you would walking down a dark street. If something feels off, trust your instincts and treat it as suspicious.

Second, be careful what you share on social media. Scammers love mining platforms for personal details like birthdays, pet names, or answers to common security questions. Even casual posts can give criminals the puzzle pieces they need to hack your accounts.

Third, practice good password hygiene. Don't reuse passwords across multiple platforms or websites, and enable multifactor authentication wherever possible. These steps won't make you invincible, but they raise the bar significantly for attackers.

Finally, if you suspect you've been compromised, act fast. Johnson recommends freezing the credit of everyone in your household and setting up alerts on financial accounts to catch suspicious activity early.

The internet has always had its dangers, but AI is making those dangers exponentially more sophisticated. The good news is that awareness and preparation still matter. The bad news is that the arms race between criminals and defenders just got a whole lot more complicated.