Posted on 01/04/2025 10:56:52 AM PST by Libloather
Artificial intelligence: authentic scams.
AI tools are being maliciously used to send “hyper-personalized emails” that are so sophisticated victims can’t identify that they’re fraudulent.
According to the Financial Times, AI bots are compiling information about unsuspecting email users by analyzing their “social media activity to determine what topics they may be most likely to respond to.”
Scam emails are subsequently sent to the users that appear as if they’re composed by family and friends. Because of the personal nature of the email, the recipient is unable to identify that it is actually nefarious.
**SNIP**
While many savvy internet users now know the telltale signs of traditional email scams, it’s much harder to tell when these new personalized messages are fraudulent.
Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail do not yet have adequate “defenses in place to stop this,” Forbes reports.
**SNIP**
Bad actors are also able to utilize AI to write convincing phishing emails that mimic banks, accounts and more. According to data from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and cited by the Financial Times, over 90% of successful breaches start with phishing messages.
These highly sophisticated scams can bypass the security measures, and inbox filters meant to screen emails for scams could be unable to identify them, Nadezda Demidova, cybercrime security researcher at eBay, told The Financial Times.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Aha! You are an AI version of Libloather. A real live Freeper would have said Hugh and Series.
And series!!!
So ... don’t click on email links.
You get an email apparently from YourBank, alerting you to or asking you about whatever.
Go to a known good link or call a known good phone number. Don’t use the link in the email. Ever.
I don’t trust any email unless it calls me names and insults me.
If they can fake that I am in big trouble.
:-)
I wonder if proton mail falls in this category?
The problem isn’t your mail service. I have a proton account. I treat incoming email there with the same suspicion I treat it elsewhere.
The problem is scammers sending you emails that look legit and aren’t.
I think my advice is sound regardless of how you receive your email.
That advice also happens to be what I get from my employer’s security department. They like to “test” us by sending surrogate “scam” messages, and they’re pretty good at making them look legit. Between the training and the testing, I’ve gotten pretty good at smelling email bullstuff.
If there’s something questionable from a family member or friend, the simple solution is to call them and verify it.
Watch out for the ones that claim they’re from the USPS (US Postal System) stating they have an “undeliverable” package and then ask for for personal information. They’re a complete scam.
How do they have access to AI?
Is AI so prevalent and cheap that the scammers can have their own setup and not need access to an otherwise legitimate source?
I don’t know enough.
I get one of those about every 4 weeks, plus phishing emails at work every other week. The key is the email address of the scammer, it's different from the correct sender's address.
I get a couple of calls a day from "lenders" who want to help me with my IRS tax debt or tell me I'm prequalified for a $44,000 personal loan. Those are deleted immediately.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. They’re starting to use AI with Text To Speech and CALLING you with these scams!
Exactly. Family, friends, financial institutions, utilities, vendors, customers ... all have verified, trustable points of contact.
And Nigerian Princes are NOT my “friends in Christ” ... and I really don’t appreciate their blasphemy.
Ha! Just read your comment and not 5 minutes later got a text message for just that!
That one’s easily recognizable as spam because the number starts with +63!
I never do, nor do I click on any links sent in text messages. I don't use my iPhone for email, and don't do any transactions of any kind, bank or otherwise on my phone.
That’s why I only use burner emails/user names online, and I never even look at the incoming email.
I run an AI on my PC. Just need a good GPU.
My employer did that too.
If you failed and fell for a phishing email - you got a visit from the IT department.
A dear lady I know just lost her husband 3 months ago. She fell for a bogus email and called the sender. Luckily her daughter caught on. They called the bank and closed accounts that had been opened for years just to ward off losing it all.
Those who prey on the elderly deserve a special place in Hell.
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