AI tools can be legitimately useful for many reasons, but they also can be easily weaponized by criminals to create realistic yet bogus voices, websites, videos and other content to perpetrate fraud. Many fear the worst is yet to come.
We’re entering an “industrial revolution for fraud criminals,” says Kathy Stokes, AARP’s director of fraud prevention programs. AI “opens endless possibilities and, unfortunately, endless victims and losses.”
Criminals are already taking advantage of some of those “endless possibilities.”
Celebrity scams. A “deepfake” (that is, a computer-generated fake version of a person) video circulated showing chef Gordon Ramsay apparently endorsing HexClad cookware. He wasn’t. Later, a similar deepfake featured Taylor Swift touting Le Creuset. The likenesses of Oprah Winfrey, Kelly Clarkson and other celebs have been replicated via AI to sell weight loss supplements.
Fake romance. A Chicago man lost almost $60,000 in a cryptocurrency investment pitched to him by a romance scammer who communicated through what authorities believe was a deepfake video.
Sextortion. The FBI warns that criminals take photos and videos from children’s and adults’ social media feeds and create explicit deepfakes with their images to extort money or sexual favors.
Fighting back — with AI
Governments are scrambling to keep up with the fast-evolving technology. The White House in late 2023 issued an executive order calling for increased federal oversight of AI systems. The technology, it noted, “holds extraordinary potential for both promise and peril.” That led to the establishment of the U.S. AI Safety Institute within the U.S. Department of Commerce to “mitigate the risks that come with the development of this generation-defining technology,” as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo put it.
As it turns out, AI may be our best tool for countering the malicious use of AI.
How to protect yourself as AI fuels more sophisticated scams
Don’t trust your caller ID. If you get a call from a business, hang up and find the company’s number (for a bank, it will be on your financial statement, for example), then call directly. No matter what the pitch, anyone asking you to pay with a gift card is a scammer, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Pause before you click. Never click on a link in an email or text message without confirming that it’s from a legitimate source. Criminals can craft extremely sophisticated-looking messages, as well as fake websites that convincingly mimic real ones.
Consider choosing a safe word for your family. Share it only with family members or others in your inner circle. If someone calls claiming to be a grandchild, for example, you can ask for the safe word or words — rubber ducky, Fred Flintstone, whatever — and if the caller doesn’t know it, it’s clearly a scam.
Call back your “grandchild” in crisis. If you don’t have a safe word and your supposed grandchild or child calls saying there’s a medical emergency or some other crisis (sometimes callers say they’ve been kidnapped), they may add that their phone is broken so you can’t call them. Pause, take a breath (criminals try to rattle you to disrupt your rational thinking), and tell them you want to try to call them back anyway. Chances are your real grandchild will pick up, unharmed and bewildered by your concern.
Don’t click on ads to download software. The FTC says that if you see an ad for software that piques your interest, rather than clicking on a link, go to the company’s website by typing in its address. If you search for it online, the agency warns, “remember that scammers also place ads on search engines. They’ll appear at the top of your search results page and might have a label that says ‘Ad’ or ‘Sponsored.’ Scroll past those to get to your search results.”
Guard your personal information. To avoid identity theft, be careful about disclosing your full name, your home address, your Social Security number, credit card and banking information, and other personal details. Definitely don’t share information with someone you only know from email or texting.
Spread the word. Educate your loved ones on the latest scams and the advice above.
Report scams. If you spot a scam or you’ve been a victim of one, report it to the police, as well as the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The more information authorities have, the better they can identify patterns, link cases and ultimately catch the criminals.
Fake Ads, Fake AI
It’s worth playing around with a chatbot to get a sense of the technology’s potential (and it’s kind of fun). But note that cybercriminals advertise AI tools on social media and search engines with links that will download malware on your computer if you click on them, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns.
Some sites are fake, the FTC says, but “some ads actually take you to the real software and download the malware through a ‘backdoor,’ which makes it hard to know you got hacked. Then, the criminals could steal your information and sell it to other hackers on the dark web, or get access to your online accounts and scam others.”
You can also report scams to the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline, 877-908-3360. It’s a free resource, with trained fraud specialists who can provide support and guidance on what to do next and how to avoid scams.
