Durov, who is now on bail, said the game may hand over people ‘ IP addresses and phone numbers to law enforcement making legal calls. He added that some functions that have been abused for illegal purposes would be removed from the game.
Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC’s assistant representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said the game was an easily accessible environment for thieves.
” For customers, this means their information is at a higher risk of being fed into schemes or other criminal activity than ever before”, he told Reuters.
According to the report, criminal organizations in the area had to be creative because of the large volume of income they made, and they had also incorporated new business models and technologies, such as deepfakes and generative artificial intelligence, into their operations.
More than 10 algorithmic software support services, according to UNODC, are” particularly targeting criminal organizations involved in cyber-enabled scams in Southeast Asia.”
In other Asian countries, authorities in South Korea, which are thought to be the most pornographic nation, have officially launched an investigation into Telegram to see if it abets online sex crimes.
A hacker used chatbots on Telegram, according to a Reuters report next month, to eavesdrop on Star Health’s data, which the system was sued for.
Using the bots, Reuters was able to obtain coverage and claims files featuring names, telephone numbers, addresses, taxes details, copies of ID cards, check results and health diagnoses.