Or… is he?
Years after my dad passed away, I found my mom giggling on her phone. It was the first time she looked happy and playful so, naturally, I was intrigued. Turns out, she was chatting with a very handsome man in his early 30s who contacted her online and quickly started declaring his eternal love… You know where this is going, right?
This was twenty years ago though… All I had to do was tell her what I advise all my clients in similar situations:
- Notice the spelling mistakes and bad grammar
- If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t
- Check the sender. Google is your best friend 💪
- Take your time, any sense of urgency they are trying to impose is not real, even in a complete disaster or a medical emergency, you get a few minutes to assess.
Do the same tips apply today? Well, the grandfather of online scam, the Nigerian Prince may not be as prominent anymore but he is certainly not dead… In fact, data shows that the scam has evolved, potentially changing into a Syrian refugee, a Ukrainian official, or an American soldier stationed abroad but the idea behind is still the same.
In fact, the scam is even more sophisticated now with the use of Artificial Intelligence:
- Spelling mistakes: gone! AI is far too smart for that, it can write perfectly phrased, error-free emails that look much more professional than the old “Dear Beloved Friend” versions.
- Your senses tell you it’s true, entire profiles exist, deepfakes are already successfully deceiving.
- They have time… In fact they may be entering into a conversation with you daily for months before they gain your trust…
Have a look at the latest Instagram scam, which ended with thousands of accounts being hacked:
Simple email, perfect use of Instagram corporate identity, notification telling the user that someone tried to access their account from a new device. No mistakes, no weird language, all looking like a real Instagram notification. The only difference? Instead of saying “you can ignore this message”, there was a link for the user to update their data. A very tricky phishing attempt…
So, are we helpless in this new AI world? Not quite, there are still many easy techniques to help spot a fraud, you just have to keep updating your knowledge and raising your guards. Stay tuned for our training in this regard, we are happy to share our tips and tricks!
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