GUARD AGAINST THE NEW GENERATION OF FRAUD AND IDENTITY THEFT

Scams are getting more sophisticated and harder to spot. Stay ahead of them with our advice.

- KIMBERLY LANKFORD

THESE days, even the most astute consumers can fall victim to identity theft schemes and financial scams.

No longer can you count on obvious red flags to spot a scam, such as a misspelled email from a Nigerian prince or a call from a robotic voice. Now, many fraudulent websites and emails look legitimate, and scammers use personal information they've collected about you to persuade you they're the real deal—and to prompt you to act quickly, without questioning the interaction.

Artificial intelligence has contributed to the rise of these more sophisticated and realistic schemes. "AI has made it much easier for the bad actors to put together absolutely picture-perfect emails, texts and scripts for phone calls. We used to teach people how to detect a phishing text or email, but we don’t do that anymore because it’s too hard to tell," says Eva Velasquez, CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center. (Below, we have advice on other ways you can protect yourself.)

Making matters worse, deepfake and voice-cloning technology have advanced, too. In a deepfake, scammers take a video or audio sample of you or your voice and use AI to make it look and sound as though you're speaking. A fraudulent call can be difficult to identify when the voice on the phone sounds exactly like your boss or your grandchild.

AI can also help thieves cull information about you and put it into a dossier they can use to rope you into scams, says Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), a consumer advocacy organization. A scammer can more convincingly pose as a legitimate government agency, financial institution, employer or trusted family member when they already have your birth date, Social Security number or numbers for your financial accounts.