4 emerging AI scams and how to spot them
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Key takeaways
Scammers now use AI to create realistic emails, voice calls, and messages that closely mimic real people, companies, or institutions.
Urgent requests, unexpected contact, pressure to act quickly, and demands for sensitive information or unusual payment methods remain strong indicators of AI-driven scams.
Slowing down, independently verifying requests, and understanding how AI scams operate can help you spot fraud early and protect your personal and financial information.
Article Summary
Artificial intelligence is allowing scammers to create increasingly sophisticated targeted attacks. From advanced phishing and spear phishing to voice cloning, deepfakes, and fake websites, in this article, we’ll uncover some of the most common emerging AI scams. We’ll also discuss ways you can safeguard yourself against them.
1. Phishing & spear phishing
You’ve heard of phishing before, but the days of scam emails with bad spelling are largely a thing of the past, according to experts on UW-Madison’s Division of Information Technology.¹
Today, criminals are using generative AI tools to create much more convincing phishing emails and fake websites that seem personalized to you. Often, they will appear to be from your bank, but they could also come from a site you shop at frequently.
Spear phishing campaigns take this to the next level, using your personal information for sophisticated social engineering attacks, which may even include romance scams.
Attackers are also increasingly using natural language processing technologies such as ChatGPT to tighten their messaging, creating messages that mimic human communication more closely than most traditional phishing campaigns.
While you might’ve been told to watch out for bad spelling or grammar as common signs of phishing emails, with the advent of new AI technologies, grammar, spelling, and tone of phishing emails are improving.
Phishing messages may also contain “compelling narratives, urgent calls to action, and sophisticated tactics designed to trick recipients into giving away sensitive information or clicking malicious links.”²
2. Voice cloning
Voice cloning technologies powered by artificial intelligence are getting more sophisticated by the day, leading to the potential for very realistic and very damaging AI voice scams and AI phone scams. In these scams, an AI-generated cloned voice is used to make a fraudulent call with the intent of getting money or information from a victim.
In many cases, scammers only need about three seconds of audio to clone someone’s voice convincingly.³ About 70% of adults are not confident that they could identify a cloned version of their voice from the real thing.
What’s more, scammers can fake caller ID, meaning that rather than appearing to come from a random phone number, most AI scam calls appear to come from a trusted number.
3. Deepfakes
If AI voice scams clone a victim’s voice, AI phone scams clone their image and likeness to manufacture “convincing videos, photos, and audio clips that make it seem like someone said or did something they didn’t.”⁴
Deepfakes have often been used to impersonate celebrities, and scammers are increasingly using them to do things like create fake charity appeals after disasters.
In some cases, scammers have even impersonated everyday people in sophisticated targeting social engineering attacks, leading them to take action such as giving up personal information or giving away money.
4. Fake websites
In certain AI scams and cryptocurrency scams, criminals are creating fake websites and leading people to them via phishing emails or phony online ads. The fake websites created by scammers are often extremely realistic, but they’re oriented towards victims entering personal information leading to identity theft or financial fraud.
How to spot an AI scam
There are a number of red flags commonly associated with AI scams, including:
- A sense of urgency: Most scammers will try to create a sense of hurriedness or urgency to get you to act immediately and avoid engaging in critical thinking.
- Out-of-character requests: Is the person you believe to be contacting you (the person that the scammer is impersonating) normally someone that would make the request they appear to be making? Be extremely skeptical if someone asks you to send money or gift cards or share sensitive information out of the blue.
- Odd phrasing: While this isn’t always the case, AI-generated content may use odd word choices or unnatural language.
- Unnatural details: Look and listen closely for unusual or unnatural details like strange background noises, strange or jerky movements (especially of the hand or face), inconsistent lighting and shadows, and unnatural-seeming speed changes.
- Something just feels “off”: Trust your gut, especially if something feels “off” or “wrong” about the interaction.
How to safeguard yourself from AI scams
Being ready for AI scams requires being educated about how they work. Staying safe from them requires vigilance, especially as the technology improves. Here are some tips for safeguarding yourself and your loved ones from AI scams:
- Talk with your friends and family and pick a code word or phrase that you were to use if something were truly wrong so that if a scammer calls, there is an extra level of protection.
- Be especially cautious about the information you choose to share with others and who you share it with.
- Slow down and allow yourself to think critically rather than getting swept up in emotion. Always trust your intuition.
- In a potential scam situation, hang up and call the friend or family member who you think has called you to verify their identity directly.
- Call the police or report the scam to the FTC immediately at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Staying safe online is as important now as ever with the advent of AI and all of its capabilities. Head to our online safety guides to learn more about how to protect yourself from scams and engage in safe online banking practices.
The above article is intended to provide generalized financial information designed to educate a broad segment of the public; it does not give personalized tax, investment, legal, or other business and professional advice. Before taking any action, you should always seek the assistance of a professional who knows your particular situation for advice on taxes, your investments, the law, or any other business and professional matters that affect you and/or your business.
Sources:
- https://it.wisc.edu/news/ai-powered-scams-how-to-protect-yourself-2024
- https://www.nyu.edu/life/information-technology/safe-computing/protect-against-cybercrime/ai-assisted-cyberattacks-and-scams.html
- https://is.bryant.edu/2023-august-cyber-bytes
- https://www.ncoa.org/article/what-are-ai-scams-a-guide-for-older-adults/
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