GREENSBORO, N.C. — Remember when you were a kid and everyone needed a code word to get into the party or the treehouse hideout? What comes around, goes around. Once again, you need a code word. This time, you need to talk about it with your family thanks to Artificial Intelligence scams.
"This is a new scam that's out. This is going to be affecting other people if they're not familiar with this artificial intelligence. That people can take a loved one's voice and create it into something that it's not."
Scammers use software to capture your loved one's voice and then they make that voice read a script that asks for your help..and of course money.
Americans lost nearly $9 billion to fraud last year alone, up more than 150% in just two years.
"You can't trust the voice. You can't trust the photo and you can't trust the video anymore," said Pete Nicoletti, a CyberSecurity expert.
HOW DO YOU BEAT AI SCAMMERS?
No matter what they ask for, no matter how convincing it sounds (especially since it is actually your loved one's voice) before you get panicked, there are two things you can do.
CALL OR TEXT YOUR LOVED ONE
While you're on the phone with "the caller" text or call your loved one to verify they're ok.
HAVE A CODE WORD
Have a code word or sentence, or ask a question only the loved one would know. But don't wait until you're in a panic situation to think of that code word. Instead, take the time to talk with your loved ones, with your family, and come up with that code word now before anything happens.
For most of us, it's a matter of when it happens not if it happens.