GREENSBORO, N.C. — Artificial intelligence is a growing trend being used for everything from the medical field to completing homework.
But with that comes a growing number of A-I scams.
WFMY News 2 spoke with James E. Lee, the Chief Operating Officer at the Identity Theft Resource Center about how to prevent scams.
What are the key findings that are highlighted in the recent reports of misuse?
There are fewer individuals reporting that they have been the victim of misuse. That is the same as the FTC and the FBI. There are also fewer individuals impacted by data breaches. However, there is an increase in the number of instances of misuse. When many people report misuse, multiple forms of misuse have been discovered.
Are there any particular scams that have a lot of staying power? What are the impacts of scams in general?
The Identity Theft Resource Center has seen three trends in identity reports and this is the third year in a row Google Voice has been the primary scam reported. Scams in general continue to be one of the driving forces for identity crimes. Artificial intelligence has accelerated things. It has allowed identity criminals to be more efficient in their targeting and in their execution.
How are identity thieves using artificial intelligence?
You can see it in the phishing attacks you get via email, text, etc. They are more convincing than they ever have been. Many of them look real. They don’t have the same misspellings and grammar errors. Beyond that, AI is helping criminals improve who they target. Cheap fakes are becoming more common for voice cloning to create a convincing voicemail. You only need a few seconds of audio to do it. They are easy to execute and just take business email compromise scams and move them into an AI-driven world.
Why is there such a sharp rise in job scams? Will it continue?
The trend started late in 2023 and has continued into 2024. It’s also AI-driven. There's an increase because the U.S. has shifted to using certain credentials in ways they have not before. In particular, driver’s licenses. Then, you begin to see various scams working off of that. For employment scams, the criminals have a lot of information to entice you, but they are looking for more. They create convincing pitches trying to gather more personal information like your driver’s license number or Social Security number. The red flag from an individual standpoint is when they begin to ask for money. No one who offers you a job is going to ask you to pay for your own background check, the shipping cost your own computer, etc. The Identity Theft Resource Center is expecting to see it continue.
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