AI is supercharging money scams. Here's how to protect yourself from fraud
2026-09-17
Fast Company
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AI technologies, including voice cloning and deepfake videos, have enabled scammers to impersonate individuals and orchestrate convincing frauds, leading to nearly $893 million in reported losses in the US in 2025. The FBI tracked over 22,000 AI-linked fraud cases, with seniors particularly affected.[AI generated]
Why's our monitor labelling this an incident or hazard?
The event involves AI systems used maliciously to clone voices and create deepfake videos to deceive victims into transferring money, resulting in substantial financial harm. The AI's role is pivotal in enabling these scams at scale and with high quality, directly causing harm to property and individuals' financial security. The losses reported by the FBI and the described incidents confirm realized harm, not just potential risk. Therefore, this is classified as an AI Incident.[AI generated]