Artificial intelligence. AI. We sure hear a lot about it. What is it?

AI is a branch of computer science that enables machines to simulate human intelligence, to include reasoning, problem-solving and creativity. The important thing to remember for today is that scammers love AI. They adopted AI systems with great enthusiasm. They use it every minute of every day.

AARP gives us some idea of the extent to which AI appears in scam world:

• Over half of spam emails are AI-generated
• Eighty-two percent of phishing emails, the ones from Amazon or Paypal telling you about “charges to your account”, are AI products
• Every day, every American sees an average of 2.6 “deepfakes”, which are still images, video or audio showing false activity by celebrities, political leaders, or other public figure
• With one photo and three seconds of audio, AI can create a deepfake video with audio
• Humans have a hard time telling the difference between deepfakes and reality – we guess it right about half of the time

The use of AI in scams is most likely in imposter scams. These are the scenarios where someone poses as law enforcement, a government agency, a business, or your new online romantic interest.

The use of deepfakes in online advertising or marketing is especially common. Scammers can take images or videos of celebrities and manufacture videos of that person promoting or advertising medications, cosmetics, cryptocurrency, you name it.

But you don’t need to be a celebrity to find yourself portrayed in a deepfake. AARP reported the ordeal of a California doctor specializing in skin diseases. Scammers produced ads using his image and voice to sell skin creams on Facebook. It took months of pressure on Facebook to get the ads removed.

All this sounds almost frightening and makes us wonder if we have any defenses. And we do. You don’t need to outsmart AI. Using the same tools we use for conventional scams works just as effectively for AI scams:

• Stop and think about the situation before acting. Time is on your side - always
• Talk to someone you trust. Someone removed from direct contact with scammers is more likely to see through the lies than anyone emotionally caught up
• You can’t trust your eyes and ears, but you can verify and look at the context. If something sounds too good to be true, it’s probably not true

Here are some other tips to get technology working for you:

• Update your passwords. Don’t use the name of your cat as your password
• Update the settings on your smartphone to send unknown numbers calling you to voice mail
• Update your privacy settings on social media to ensure only people you want see your posts
• Freeze your credit
• Delete apps you never use (they may hold passwords vulnerable to hacking)

We are not defenseless. We just need to use our own non-AI reasoning abilities.

Contact Seniors vs. Crime

Let me know about scams, fraud, or other crookedness you run across. Most of what I learn, I learn from you. Contact me at Seniors vs. Crime, Clinton County Sheriff’s Office, 563-242-9211, extension 4433, or email me at randymeier@gapa911.us.

Randy Meier is the director of Seniors vs. Crime.