AI is Making Scams Smarter (must watch videos inside)
Watch two AI scams in action using your personal information against you
We’ve documented in this newsletter how artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the landscape of scams, giving scammers new, powerful tools to trick and deceive. With easy access to personal information online, people are more vulnerable than ever. If you don’t take steps to protect your personal data, you could become the next target of an AI-driven scam.
The combination of sophisticated AI and the sheer volume of personal data people share online makes it easier for scammers to target individuals with personalized attacks that are increasingly difficult to spot and avoid.
And this is not a theoretical concern. There is no shortage of AI scam news these days. Check out our latest monthly news roundup for a sample. 👇
But it’s one thing to read about the scams. It’s another to see how they can and do operate.
In the first video below, two Harvard students developed a system called I-XRAY that demonstrates the potential privacy risks of smart glasses like the Ray-Ban Meta model.
By combining the glasses' livestreaming capability with facial recognition technology and public databases, they were able to instantly identify strangers and access personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and even details about relatives in real-time. The system works by monitoring the livestream from the glasses, using AI to recognize faces, and then matching those images with public databases to retrieve personal details.
It’s easy to see how a tool like this will supercharge scams, espionage, doxing and general harassment. As of now, this tool is only a prototype created by college kids with good intentions - to raise awareness about a looming privacy threat. But Bad Actors are certainly working on their own versions.
Scammers don’t just need advanced hardware, though. They can operate effectively with software running on regular hardware.
The next video provides a brief behind-the-scenes look at how AI scammers use AI tools to simultaneously chat with countless people on Instagram, attempting to scam them out of money. The AI’s ability to hold endless conversations and convincingly mimic human responses makes these scams incredibly efficient and dangerous. And the more the target interacts and provides information, the stronger the AI scam bot becomes.
We’ve arrived at the point where AI now allows Bad Actors to automate scams with minimal human interaction. You can run them while you’re sleeping, at the beach or at your day job.
Why Someone is a Target
How do scammers pick their targets?
A significant factor is choosing individuals with the most personal information available online. Whether through social media profiles, public records, or data breaches, much of your life is accessible to those with bad intentions if you don’t take precautions. And AI has supercharged the ability of scammers to use that information against you — tailoring their tactics to exploit specific vulnerabilities.
How to Protect Yourself
The best protection is to make yourself a hard enough target that scammers move onto easier prey.
We laid out how to do that in a recent post, available here:
And if you haven’t already, you can grab a free copy of our guide on how to Spot and Avoid AI Scams. New subscribers get an automatic download link for the guide. Existing subscribers can message us for a download link.
Thank you for your continued support and trust in us. 🙏
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Disclaimer: None of the above is to be deemed legal advice of any kind. These are *opinions* written by a privacy attorney with 15+ years of working for, with and against Big Tech and Big Data. And this post is for informational purposes only and is not intended for use in furtherance of any unlawful activity.
Check out our Personal Privacy Stack here.
Discover the very real privacy risks of AI chat bots here.
We crunched the numbers on how much it costs to take back your privacy online. The results may surprise you. 😯 Read about it here.
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