Washington: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned that scammers are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to make financial fraud more convincing, with cryptocurrency investment schemes and AI-generated impersonations emerging as major threats.
In an interview with U.S. News & World Report published on October 21, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Timothy Lynch, unit chief of the agency’s Cyber-Enabled Fraud and Money Laundering Unit, said cryptocurrency investment fraud was among the most common scams, accounting for approximately $7.2 billion in reported losses last year.
According to Lynch, fraud networks operating across continents have industrialised their operations, with scam compounds reported in Southeast Asia and Africa. These operations obtain phone numbers in bulk and use unsolicited calls and messages to target potential victims.
AI has made such schemes harder to detect by improving the language used in fraudulent messages and enabling scammers to manipulate faces and voices during video calls. Lynch cited cases in which fraudsters used AI to appear and sound like someone entirely different during romance scam attempts.
The technology has also strengthened the so-called grandparent scam, in which criminals impersonate grandchildren claiming to be in trouble abroad and urgently requesting money. Using publicly available audio or video clips, fraudsters can now create convincing imitations of family members.
The FBI recommends its “Take a Beat” campaign, which urges people to pause and verify unexpected requests before transferring money. Its “Check, Call, Wait” approach advises recipients to examine suspicious contact details, independently contact the purported sender through a verified number, and delay payments until the request is confirmed as genuine.
Victims should report fraud to their banks and request assistance recovering funds. They can also file complaints through the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at IC3.gov and contact their local FBI office if further assistance is required.
The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Center report recorded more than one million complaints involving nearly $21 billion in reported losses.
