(RepublicanView.org) – The traditional holiday scams are getting a big boost from AI in 2023.
Recent technological advancements have given clever scammers new ways to rip off consumers. Generative AI has been particularly useful in quickly convincing emails designed to deceive consumers.
Cyber security experts at IBM have confirmed that ChatGPT can almost replicate the ability of a social engineer to write spam emails, and it typically does so much faster.
Even worse, platforms like FraudGPT use AI to specifically help criminals write more effective fraudulent emails, crack secure databases, and steal card information. They are particularly adept at avoiding the grammatical errors that typically give scammers away.
The software has gained popularity on the dark web and in secure messaging apps like Telegram. It also streamlines the process of finding and exploiting victims online, thus making it easier for more people to defraud others. Experts believe it will help grow the cybercrime economy exponentially. In most cases, users can just pick from specific templates.
The 2022 holiday season nearly broke records for $73 million that online scammers stole just in the United States. That staggering figure came just as generative AI first appeared publicly. Hackers have had an entire year to better understand it.
However, IBM’s cybersecurity experts also have good news from the world of AI. Several big-tech companies are using AI models to train their anti-spam filters to better recognize fraudulent emails. They are specifically learning to recognize language manipulation and keyword stuffing. Google’s RETVec platform is already showing promising results.
Some tech leaders believe that they can utilize AI to defend consumers with an unprecedented ability to target specific attack vectors.
Still, the FBI advises consumers to take steps to reduce their chances of falling victim to fraud. The most important step is still to avoid odd links that are shared in emails, social media posts, and websites, even if everything else looks legitimate. Also, be wary of any requests to change your password that you did not initiate. And, always check domain and email addresses.
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