Experts are reportedly warning Americans that “devastating” artificial intelligence (AI) scams targeting senior citizens are on the rise.
Speaking with cybersecurity firm Check Point, Fox News reports that bad actors are targeting the elderly’s life savings using a three-step scheme known as the Phantom Hacker scam, where three different individuals are impersonated: a tech support worker, a financial institution worker, and a government worker.
The first step involves a tech support worker contacting the victim and getting them to download software that gives them remote access to their computer. Then, the bad actor gets the victim to bring up their financial accounts in order to determine if any fraudulent charges occurred or not – but only as a guise to scope out which accounts to target.
The second phase involves forwarding the targeted accounts to a fake fraud department that informs the victim that they’ve been hacked by a foreign agent and that their funds must be moved to a safe third-party account.
The third phase involves a fake government worker who contacts the victim, telling them to move their funds to an “alias” account for safety. However, the funds are then transferred to the accounts of the bad actors.
Check Point’s chief information officer, Pete Nicoletti, told Fox News that the scammers are using AI to identify and contact potential victims based on their web activity.
“Seniors are posting things on Facebook, like they’re a Corvette collector. The criminals are actually using artificial intelligence to look for those types of characteristics and profiles. And they’ll send you an email or a message saying, ‘hey, that Corvette that you ordered a month ago is now available. It’s, you know, for $500, you can get it, and we’ll deliver it to you right away…’
And of course, the senior goes, ‘well, I’m a Corvette collector. Maybe I was forgetful and I didn’t know that I ordered that Corvette.'”
According to Nicoletti, if the victims report their funds stolen on the same day, there is a small chance they can recover them. Otherwise, a delay in reporting the theft to authorities means the money is likely gone forever.
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