“In Montenegro and the region, clickbait ads with fake statements from public figures often lead to servers located abroad, outside the jurisdiction of Montenegrin authorities. Offenders use VPN services, encryption and fake digital identities, which makes identification and prosecution extremely difficult.”
Mihailovic stressed the need to strengthen technical capacities and formalise international cooperation to allow faster data exchange and urgent interventions in digital abuse cases.
“Because of weak international cooperation, harmful content often remains online for a long time. Another problem is that some posts disappear before investigations are completed, leaving perpetrators unidentified.”
Rising number of deepfake incidents
According to police data, 42 people in Montenegro reported being the victims of online scams in 2025, involving financial costs of around 300,000 euros.
On November 11, police said such scams are organised through fake social media pages promoting bogus investments.
“Due to the advanced use of information technologies that make it easy to conceal digital traces, resolving such cases requires extensive analysis and often the involvement of international partners and foreign companies,” police said.
Mihailovic noted that in the first three months of this year alone, reported deepfake incidents exceeded the total number recorded for the whole of 2024, with public figures targeted in more than 55 per cent of cases.
She said the most common formats include fake public statements, simulated media appearances, altered photos and audio recordings. Video content dominates political and financial scams, while static images are more often used for reputational damage.