Interpol, the global police agency, said it was preparing for the possibility that immersive online environments, known as the “metaverse,” could spark new types of cybercrime and enable existing crime to be perpetrated on a greater scale.
Interpol’s member countries have expressed concern about how to prepare for potential metaverse crime, according to Madan Oberoi, Interpol’s executive director for technology and innovation.
“Some of the crimes may be new to this medium, while others may be enabled by the medium and brought to a new level,” he explained.
According to Oberoi, phishing and scams may operate differently when augmented and virtual reality are involved. He also expressed concern about child safety.
Oberoi believes that virtual reality could aid in the physical crime.
“If a terror group wishes to assault a physical area, they may utilize it to plan, practice, and launch their drills before to attacking,” he explained.
Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, reported earlier this month that terror groups may utilize virtual worlds for propaganda, recruitment, and training in the future. According to the article, users can even create virtual worlds with “extreme regulations.”
If users’ activities in metaverse environments are recorded on the blockchain, “this may make it easy to monitor everything someone does base on one encounter with them – offering useful information for stalkers or extortionists,” according to Europol.
In 2021, the metaverse became a digital term, with corporations and investors wagering that virtual world environments will expand in popularity and usher in a new era in the evolution of the internet. In October 2021, Facebook announced that it would change its name to Meta to reflect this move.
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However, so far, this idea appears to be a pipe dream. On Thursday, Meta’s stock’s value plummeted as investors cautioned about spending on metaverse bets. Following a period of frantic expansion last year, sales of blockchain-based assets representing virtual land and other digital holdings have also decreased drastically.
