https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/technology/personaltech/scams-ai.html
Online Scams Have Evolved in the A.I. Era. Here’s What to Do.
A criminal could be masquerading as a celebrity, web store or family member asking for your money. Detecting scams requires a new approach.
By Brian X. Chen, The New York Times, May 28, 2026
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These look-alike websites are one of several A.I.-fueled internet scams that have recently been on the rise, security experts say. The F.B.I. reported last month that cybercriminals had defrauded Americans of nearly $21 billion last year, with about $893 million in losses linked to A.I...
Meta said that last year, it removed 159 million scam ads and took down nearly 11 million accounts on Facebook and Instagram associated with known producers of scams…
Everyone is familiar with the text message coming from an unknown number saying something along the lines of “It’s been a long time. How have you been?” Engaging with the sender could end with a phone conversation and the scammer asking for cash. Today, that conversation is likely to shift to a video call because fraudsters have discovered they can use A.I. tools that digitally transform them into someone else.
“It’s very easy and very cheap to do a real-time Zoom call with whole body replacement and voice changing in a way that’s completely realistic…”
Have conversations with family members, especially any older relatives inexperienced with tech, to discuss the possibility that they might get a call from an impersonator. Establish a secret safe word that can be used to test whether someone is real, whenever in doubt…
Trust only information from official sources …
For more thorough scam detection, you can also ask an A.I. chatbot for help. Malwarebytes recently teamed up with OpenAI and Anthropic to connect its free scam-detection app to the ChatGPT and Claude chatbots. You can paste a web address and screenshots into the chatbots and ask Malwarebytes to run an analysis on whether a site is legitimate… [end quote]
Of course, the easiest way to avoid losing money is to say NO to anyone who asks for money.
Wendy