How To Recognize AI-Generated Scams As They Become Harder To Detect

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How To Recognize AI-Generated Scams As They Become Harder To Detect.
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It’s an unfortunate side effect of the artificial intelligence revolution: a relentless and steep rise in AI scams. In the most recent year measured, 2025, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s IC3 unit received more than 22,000 complaints reporting AI fraud, with adjusted losses exceeding $893 million.

This figure may be underestimated. All too often, AI scams go unreported. “Scammers weaponize shame and they're counting on you being too embarrassed to talk about it,” said Rob T. Lee, chief AI officer and chief of research for the SANS Institute. “Even trained cybersecurity professionals have fallen for AI-generated scams. You didn't get scammed because you're gullible, you got scammed because the AI was good at its job.”

Common AI-Generated Scams​

With the ubiquity of AI tools, the potential to generate content for scams, fraud, blackmail and non-consensual intimate imagery is limitless, and continually evolving. “Many tools are free or low-cost, require no technical expertise, and can be used anonymously,” according to the 2026 International AI Safety Report. At this time, the report’s authors observe, “data on their prevalence and severity remains limited.”

Some of the most common – and egregious – AI scams include confidence or romance scams, in which victims are tricked into thinking they're interacting with people they know; banking and investment scams that lure consumers into providing funds or personal account details; sextortion, in which teenagers’ and young adults’ images are pulled from social media sites for malicious purposes; and employment scams, which involve fake job postings, and even deepfake interviews.

Anyone could be the target for such scams, but they usually follow demographic lines, hitting different people in different ways. Seniors and individuals living alone are vulnerable to confidence and investment scams, teenagers and young adults are targeted for sextortion scams, and middle-aged adults are likely to be targeted for credential harvesting, invoice fraud and phishing schemes.