Artifical Intelligence Scams

So, what is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Modern times has recently focused on the resurgence of artificial intelligence, or AI, and the amazing technological strides made in the field, and the role that AI can play in our daily lives.

In a nutshell, artificial intelligence is all about building machines that can learn. While most machines and devices have a set task they are programmed to complete, AI can reason, learn, and act/make decisions. This has become extremely helpful in analyzing large sets of data that humans cannot tackle on their own, predict specific trends and outcomes based on large amounts of data, automatically translate written or spoken words, identify images, convert text to speech, and even help scan systems for threats of cyber attacks. As AI becomes further embedded in our daily routines and devices, it is important to learn how it works, not only so we can use it to our advantage, but also protect ourselves against criminals who might use it for more sinister motives.

Types of AI Scams

What makes AI scams so dangerous is how convincing they can be. Its ability to generate images, voices, and even video can help a criminal persuade anyone that they are a legitimate company, government agency, or even a friend or family member! These generated videos and images, or deepfakes, have even fooled multi-million dollar companies! Below are some of the most common types of AI scams to be on the lookout for.

Deepfake Video or Video-call

Like we mentioned above, scammers can use AI to make extremely realistic videos pretending to be someone else. This can even occur on video-call! Criminals use these images to fake a celebrity endorsement of a fake brand, or even help create convincing romance scams, persuading victims they are actually talking to their potential love interest.

Criminals can also generate explicit deepfakes to blackmail victims for money, or personal information.

Voice Cloning Scams

Using short audio clips of someone’s voice, AI technology can clone the voice to create new audio of the voice saying anything they want! This can even include certain intonations to convey emotions. This type of AI technology can be used to help aid in Romance Scams, and clone celebrity voices to convince victims to donate money or give away information.

Scammers can also find audio clips to use from social media profiles to then impersonate that individual. They often call family members asking for money, sometimes pretending to be in a dire situation. These types of ruses are sometimes called grandparent scams, as criminals target older victims, claiming to be a grandchild.

Fake Websites

Like we’ve mentioned before in our tips for online shopping safety, scammers use fake websites linked through email, text, or social media to steal money or get payment information. AI makes creating these types of sites an easy task now, instantly creating content, code, and images to use.

Similarly, criminals use AI to fake listings for property, sales, businesses, and other items on online marketplaces.  

Phishing Emails

We all know about phishing emails! However, using AI, scammers are able to create much more convincing emails that can spoof known email addresses to make it looks like it is actually coming from a friend, family member, or government agency. These AI emails are also riddled with much less spelling and grammatical errors than other phishing emails. These emails often contain links to download malware onto your device or trick you into sending sensitive information.

Protect Yourself from AI Scams

It seems like AI scams come from everywhere! Despite their convincing tactics, there are still ways you can be cautious and protect yourself.

• Don’t make decisions under stress or pressure. Like we’ve mentioned before, a scammer’s main tactic is to create a feeling of pressure (e.g. you have to claim your prize now!) or fear (e.g. pay this fee now or your services will be stopped) to get victims to act quickly. Take a breath and assess the situation. If you feel it may be legitimate, don’t interact with the phone number that called you, reply to emails, or click on any links. Reach out using verified channels of communication to confirm the legitimacy of the message.
• Update account security. Using multi-factor authentication is a great way to help protect your accounts. This basically adds another layer of security to your accounts so that even if your password is compromised, bad actors cannot access your account.
• Use code phrases. With AI’s ability to clone voices and spoof email addresses and phone numbers, it’s a good idea to come up with a code phrase that only close family and friends know. If you are unsure if you are actually being contacted by your loved one, ask them to tell you the code word or phrase so you can be sure of their identity.
• Be wary of different payment methods. As we’ve detailed in other articles, being prompted to pay in gift card, cash, cryptocurrency, or even wire transfers can be a sign that you are the target of a scam. Make sure to use payment methods that keep you protected, such as credit cards.

It can be scary to dive into the rabbit-hole of potential scams that occur while being online. It is important to remember how to use the internet safely and how to safeguard your information. Remember to take a pause before acting and if it’s too good to be true, it probably is!

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