AI is supercharging scams that are costing Americans billions, with older adults hit hardest as cybercriminals use personalized tactics to steal money and data.
Artificial intelligence is making it easier for scammers to clone voices, create fake websites and scour databases for information to target individuals.
“Everything is getting way, way, way more personalized. And when something is personalized, it makes you believe that it’s real, because how would they know all of this? They don’t think they were not an actual government official. And that’s what they’re relying on,” said Ron Kerbs, founder and CEO of Kidas, a scam detection service.
Americans lost nearly $21 billion to cybercrime last year, with people 60 and older accounting for $7.7 billion of those losses, according to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report.
Recently, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center report site added a dedicated section on AI scams. The agency reported receiving more than 22,000 AI-related complaints with victims reporting $890 million in losses.
Graphic explains how cybercrooks steal your data and turn it into money. San Jose Mercury News 2007
With CPT-CYBERCRIMES-1:SJ, San Jose Mercury News by Ryan Blitstein
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‘I was almost scammed’
With AI tools, it can take less than an hour to create a fake website. That website could spoof a popular retailer or other business, organization or venue.
Scammers are building the website upfront, making sure that it appears high on search engine platforms and then tricking people into giving up their information and money on fake goods, tickets to games and concerts, or other items.
“I was almost scammed,” Kerbs said. “My flight was canceled and I was looking for a way to get a refund from the company, and while searching Gemini, basically the Google product, it got me to a scam website, and I was unfortunately talking with not the right people. Luckily at the last second I realized, wow, something is not right here so I hang up. But you know, it’s very hard to distinguish.”
Ron Kerbs is the founder and CEO of Kidas.
Look for red flags
Although scammers are becoming more sophisticated with impersonating government agencies, classic red flags still apply. Look out for phone calls, letters, emails or text messages with a sense of urgency, secrecy or demands for unusual payment types such as gift cards or wire transfers.
“There is always a deadline, otherwise you’ll be fined, otherwise something bad will happen,” Kerbs said. “And unfortunately, the personal invasion, with the urgency, tricks people to believe and do things that they wouldn’t otherwise do.”
Government agencies, whether federal, state or local, need to think about how their systems interact with people to make sure they’re not making it easier for the scammers to scam people, he said.
For example, people largely knew that a text from the E-ZPass regional electronic toll collection network was a scam because they would not send text messages.
“Unfortunately, just in the last year, they started sending you text messages. So while I was ignoring all of the E-ZPass text messages because I knew they were scams, now I can’t ignore them anymore. I actually have to check each one of them because legitimate messages are actually being sent by E-ZPass,” Kerbs said.
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Before acting, verify
Before acting on calls, emails or text messages, contact the agency or organization directly to verify the communication is legitimate.
Kerbs said he recommends verifying by at least two ways.
“If you get a call, send them an email. Don’t ask the person what is your email. Go look online. What is the email of the agency that is supposedly contacting you and send them an email,” he said.
For email messages or letters, Kerbs said to look online to find the agency’s actual number, and to not use one provided in the communication.
One statistic people may not realize is that victims of scams are more likely to be victimized again.
Scammers may share databases. Also, when someone is scammed, it’s possible a scammer will contact them claiming to be from a government agency or law firm offering to help get their money back. And then the victim is scammed again, Kerbs said.
Sometimes if someone is scammed, someone else will contact them claiming to be from a government agency or law firm offering to help get their money back. And then they are scammed again, he said.
A major problem for law enforcement is that scammers are typically offshore.
“And even when they catch them, they catch their servers, they just spin up new servers, they set it up in another location and start all over again,” he said.
The National Council on Aging offers the following tips to help stay safe in the age of AI scams.
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