Social media keeps you connected with friends, family, and important news events, but it’s also creating connections with scammers!
Catfishing, which happens when a person pretends to be someone else online in an attempt to exploit you, stalk you, or even steal your money, is a popular scamming method, and now, AI is making this type of fake impersonation easier than ever.
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About 20,000 Americans report being catfished each year, so how can you be sure you’re talking to a legit person and not a computer or scammer?
One warning sign that your online “friend” is a fake: their social media profile is missing a picture or contains a blurry photo.
Also, check out their friends or followers list. The average Facebook user has about 350 friends, so if they have fewer than 100, you might be wary.
Another way to spot a scammer is to look at their history. If their profile is new, they rarely post, and aren’t tagged in other people’s posts, it could be a phony account.
And asking you for money is a huge red flag!
To protect yourself from AI and catfishing scams, set your profile to private. Also, don’t give away any personal details, like your mother’s maiden name or the name of your bank.
A newer tactic for scammers is to extract voice samples and feed them to AI machines to produce voice clones. Then, they send you a message from someone you think you know asking for money.
If you suspect someone is a phony, ask them questions about their background that only they would know and invite them to video chat, so you can see them.