AI has proven to be a powerful and dangerous tool for scammers and fraudsters who are using the technology to make their scams harder to identify and look much more legitimate.
When it comes to industries like real estate and brokerage, this turns into massive financial losses for legitimate businesses and consumers.
These scams have always been a major threat for property buyers who are dealing with high-stress environments, time frames to pay deposits and mortgages, and exchanging large assets, making them the perfect hunting ground for cyber criminals who thrive on pressure and urgency.
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AI has only exacerbated the issue, giving criminals the tools they need to make their scams more convincing and harder to detect while also lowering the barrier for entry.
According to a report from PEXA late last year, 97 per cent of Australians who had either purchased a property in late 2024 and 2025 or intended to soon, failed to spot obvious indicators of a scam in a mock settlement email.
Speaking with Michael Richardson, Australian Broker, co-founder and chief executive of AI broker platform Cynario, he said that fraud has gone beyond forging documents.
“Fraud is no longer just about fake documents,” he said.
“AI now has the capability to create entirely believable fraudulent narratives, including highly realistic bank statements, payslips and details to fit a scenario.
“Overly perfect documents, reluctance from clients to provide additional information, subtle formatting inconsistencies and unusual client urgency could be potential red flags.”
“The exponential advancements of AI technologies has meant the barrier to entry is lower, while also becoming faster and scalable,” he said, adding that his firm had detected both an increase in fraud frequency and sophistication.
Similarly, just last month, Equifax general manager of digital identity and fraud services Tehani Legeay said that basic AI platforms are granting scammers the tools to create highly sophisticated forgery.
“We’ve seen a significant spike in loan manipulations. Easy-to-use and inexpensive AI tools can now produce convincing fake documents, which may increase the temptation to falsify information to secure credit, especially amidst heightening economic pressures,” Legeay said.
The good news is that prevention tactics are also on the rise, with Legeay pointing out that prevention saved “over $1.5 billion worth of fraudulent credit applications”.
These include industry data sharing, digital identity checks and verification and stronger analytics.
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Daniel Croft
Born in the heart of Western Sydney, Daniel Croft is a passionate journalist with an understanding for and experience writing in the technology space. Having studied at Macquarie University, he joined Momentum Media in 2022, writing across a number of publications including Australian Aviation, Cyber Security Connect and Defence Connect. Outside of writing, Daniel has a keen interest in music, and spends his time playing in bands around Sydney.