AI scams use artificial intelligence tools to target consumers in sophisticated and personalized ways.
Unlike traditional scams that tend to rely on generic tactics, AI allows criminals to create websites, emails and impersonations that are increasingly difficult to differentiate from reality. With AI, scammers can quickly launch fraud campaigns on a massive scale.
Additionally, they can zero in on specific people by using data gathered from social media or other platforms.
Joe Ducey, Consumer Specialist at the Better Business Bureau, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the threat these scams pose.
Ducey said AI scams against older adults are becoming “increasingly common.” He also added seniors are losing the most money out of any population in things like cryptocurrency scams and investment scams.
As AI becomes more sophisticated, Ducey said it’s likely to become harder for everyone to be able to tell the difference between real and AI generated media.
“That I think is the real danger for seniors, for all of us. I mean it’s knowing, we used to say, look at punctuation, look at mistakes made,” Ducey said. “A lot of that’s been taken away because AI’s been able to do that. So no longer do you have those points” that you can keep an eye out for that give it away it’s AI and not real.
One voice-cloning AI scam is called the grandparent scam, where AI is used to clone someone’s voice to convince their grandparents to send them money to get out of predicaments such as a car accident or jail.
Ducey said some ways to keep yourself protected are to establish a code word in the family and to call the person to check to see if it was a real emergency.
Ducey also provided some advice on how to handle these AI scams on personal devices.
“Expect that it’s a scam if it comes through on the phone, on an email and on a text. And I hate to say that because, I mean, you know we like to trust, but I think it needs to be proven to you that it’s not a scam. So I say don’t answer your phone,” Ducey said.
Ducey added callers like the doctor’s office or the pharmacy will leave messages if needed.
