Two in five adults experienced some kind of financial fraud or scam during the past year, a 34% increase over the same period a year earlier, a new Bankrate survey found. What’s driving this increase?
Financial scams are becoming more common because of the many different touch points you can have with scammers and the rapid proliferation of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence.
Scammers are targeting people in advanced ways using AI, so it takes a lot of awareness to avoid making a mistake. Kiplinger caught up with Sarah Foster, a U.S. economic analyst at Bankrate to dive into how fraudsters could be targeting your finances, and what you can do about it.
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Kiplinger: How are fraudsters exploiting AI to scam us?
Sarah Foster: Fraudsters use AI to send messages quickly to larger groups of people to try to increase their success rate. They’re using it to edit out typos and grammar mistakes, making it harder to spot fakes. Some scammers use it to create automated messages posing as your bank or other financial institutions, so you don’t really know who is on the other end.
Your survey found that people 55 and older are increasingly being targeted, with half experiencing someone attempting to access their information or spending money on phony services in the past year. Why is this demographic a fraudster favorite?
There is this perception that older people are less technologically literate, so it could be that fraudsters believe by targeting them, they might have a higher success rate. There’s also the fact that older generations are sitting on enormous pools of wealth, and these scammers know that. Some of these older adults might also have more touch points for scammer interaction because they are more likely to answer the phone or read an e-mail from someone not in their contact list.
But all generations are targets and fall for scams. In fact, we found that young people are the most likely to lose money from a scam.
Nearly all Americans have taken some steps to protect themselves, your survey found. What are the most common precautions taken, and what more should we do?
The most common steps are: avoiding clicking on suspicious links or e-mails, regularly checking financial accounts, and using two-factor authentication — which are all crucial. I also always recommend setting up filters so that people who aren’t in your contact list cannot text or reach you, and setting up alerts on your financial accounts for specific kinds of transactions so you’ll be notified anytime, say, $100 or more leaves your checking account.
Verification is also important. If someone calls claiming to be from your bank, credit card issuer or phone company, hang up and dial the public customer-service number to check that the call was legitimate. Scammers try to make you feel a sense of urgency, so if the caller is rushing you to act, that’s a sign to take a step back and really think about what you’re doing.
Finally, many people might not be aware of or may be fearful of using phone- or computer-generated passwords or a passkey, but those log-ins tend to be the safest ones.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
What should someone do if they think they’ve been a victim of financial fraud?
Contact your bank, credit card company or financial institution immediately. If you’ve sent a scammer money or you see charges you didn’t make, ask the company to reverse or stop the transaction and dispute any unauthorized changes or purchases.
Then change your passwords, and report the fraud to the Federal Trade Commission. This gives you a case number you can provide to your bank and the credit-reporting companies — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — which could be useful.
Also contact all three credit-reporting companies and either put a freeze on your credit [which prevents new credit lines from being opened] or set up a fraud alert on your account [which tells lenders to double-check that you did actually request a new loan or credit card before opening one in your name]. Both are free.
Many people keep their credit frozen permanently, and then if they know they’re going to need credit, lift the freeze. If the fraud was minor, just putting a fraud alert on your account may suffice.
Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.