In the past couple of years, I’ve noticed an uptick in scam emails that get past Gmail’s spam filters. Since I'm an author, the emails I get are usually from so-called book clubs, filled with empty praise for my writing and an offer to market my books for a (typically exorbitant) fee. 

Most of the time, these book clubs don’t actually exist. Sometimes, the book clubs do exist, but the person emailing me isn’t connected to them. The same scams are proliferating in the inboxes of every author I know. 

While I can’t 100% prove these fraudulent emails are generated by artificial intelligence, experts at McAfee confirmed my suspicions that scammers are increasingly relying on AI for speed, scale and personalization. 

“From deepfake audio and video impersonation scams to highly polished phishing, smishing and email campaigns that exploit fear, urgency and trust, these AI‑powered tactics are making scams more convincing and harder to spot than ever,” said Abhishek Karnik, head of threat research at McAfee.

More sophisticated AI scams could try to persuade you to buy fake services, click malicious links or download harmful files. This can lead to damaged devices, extortion, lost funds or even wholesale identity theft, causing massive emotional and financial stress. 

As these scams increase, it’s important that we learn how to identify them so you won't become the next victim. 

How scammers are using AI

AI content generators use machine learning and natural language processing to create text instantly, whether for an article, social media post, advertisement or email. The software can create a personalized message easily by scraping specific content that could appeal to you directly. The book marketing emails I receive often pull words from one of my book blurbs and reorganize them to make it seem like the scammer is a fan.

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Since it’s so easy to mass-create these emails with AI, the full scam comes later. Scammers wait to send attachments, links or prices for their fake services until you’ve responded enough to seem invested.

The combination of personalization and delayed delivery of the more suspicious elements makes these scam emails likely to bypass your spam filters. 

According to cybersecurity incident response analyst Taylor Peltzman, AI hasn't changed the goal of scams, but it has made them more efficient and easier to execute. 

“AI can continuously rewrite messages, use legitimate services such as Google Drive or Microsoft 365, and construct multi-step attacks rather than relying on a single email," Peltzman told me. "Organizations are more likely to trust links from widely used platforms, which makes these attacks harder to detect." 

Scams come in all shapes and sizes

AI lends itself to social engineering scams, which use human psychology -- things like trust, urgency or fear -- to manipulate you into giving away personal or financial information. This is most often done by impersonating authority figures or trusted relatives, pitching you fake products or tricking you into false relationships. 

If you have any doubt, always pause before taking action. Don't click on a link or divulge your sensitive information without confirming that the person on the other end is legit. 

Imposter scams

Imposter scams are some of the most common to look out for. These typically come from someone pretending to be a distressed relative or an authority -- such as banks, law enforcement or government agencies -- in urgent need of either a payment or your personal information. Scammers can also impersonate more niche authorities, such as established professionals in your industry.

Impersonation scams are particularly insidious in the age of AI because of their ability to replicate actual humans in ways they couldn't in the past. 

"One of the most concerning developments is the use of deepfake technology and voice cloning, which can mimic real people’s faces, voices and even writing style and tone," Peltzman told me. "Fake voices are among the hardest to detect, as even imperfect voice clones can sound convincing in the right context." 

Online shopping scams

Scammers will often create fake emails, ad listings on social media or entire websites to trick you into buying products or services, which often don't even exist. Online shopping scams attempt to reel you in with unbelievably large discounts and falsified reviews of their products or services. Generative AI tools allow scammers to quickly create emails and websites for these purposes, making it easier than ever to craft these scams.

Pig butchering scams

Pig butchering scams encourage people to spend increasing amounts of money on seemingly lucrative schemes such as cryptocurrency. These scams often manufacture small wins at the beginning to get you to “invest” more. When your payment reaches a certain threshold -- one that modern scammers can select by asking AI to predict your risk tolerance based on established patterns -- the scammer disappears with your money.

Romance scams

Some scammers create fake personas to build romantic relationships with people online. They’ll spend weeks or even months communicating with you and building trust. Once they’ve established this trust, they’ll tell you they’re in trouble and ask for financial help -- then vanish into the ether with your hard-earned cash. Generative AI makes this easier than ever by allowing these scammers to quickly create personalized, optimized messages for each person they’re building a false relationship with.

Payment app scams

One of the most insidious ways scammers get your information is by sending fake invoices or money transfer requests, using urgent language to get you to send money before you can notice any red flags. Payment app scams sometimes use imposter scam tactics as well, pretending to be a real company or payment processor.

Delivery scams

These days, it’s common for folks to order multiple packages in a week and even forget some of what they’ve ordered. Delivery scams take advantage of this by sending falsified shipping alerts that claim you must pay a fee in order to receive a package you’ve ordered. If you’ve discussed your orders online, they can even use generative AI to create shipping alerts that match the language of existing delivery companies.

Lottery scams

Lottery scams declare you’ve won a lottery or other prize and demand either a processing fee or personal information before you can get your prize. Like payment app scams, lottery scams may attempt to make themselves look more legitimate by impersonating a real lottery or contest. Some may even go as far as using AI to generate entire websites to create a sense of legitimacy.

Charity scams

Scammers may pretend to be charities sending you texts or emails as part of a supposed fundraising campaign. They may create false charities for this purpose or pretend to be legitimate charities. AI search can make these scams even more insidious by helping scammers quickly find public posts about people donating to specific charities, uncovering their email addresses and creating communications in the style of those charities.

AI has made scammers more prolific than ever, but you can protect yourself

AI makes it much easier for bad actors to create highly sophisticated scams, making it more important than ever to understand how to identify red flags. 

You can protect yourself by learning how to identify a spam link and keeping your computer or phone safe from threats. We also recommend purchasing identity theft protection services if you have significant financial assets to protect.