The growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has left a quarter of UK adults feeling overwhelmed by the growing sophistication of scams, a survey suggests.
National Trading Standards (NTS) warned that AI was not necessarily creating new types of scams but “supercharging” existing ones, with shopping, holiday, investment and romance fraud now more convincing, personalised and scalable, enabling criminals to target more people at pace and with less technical expertise needed than before.
NTS has launched an “AI Scam Watchlist” to raise awareness among consumers of the latest scams and how they work.
The poll for NTS found one in five UK adults (19%) admit to avoiding specific online activities now because of concerns about scams – while 31% now double-check emails, messages or websites more carefully.
Some 27% are worried about becoming a victim themselves, but 79% said they were especially concerned about more vulnerable friends or family.
The five AI-powered scam techniques consumers are most concerned about are fake websites, voice cloning – when a voice is replicated to create a convincing phone call or voice message – deep fake video, AI-generated images of products, properties, vehicles or documents, and videos of fake people that are AI generated, broadcast on social media and sometimes able to interact with consumers in real time.
NTS chairman Lord Michael Bichard said: “AI is transforming the fraud landscape, as it paves the way for a new generation of organised criminals who need little technical expertise to create convincing scams at huge speed and scale.
“Tackling this is a monumental challenge for government, enforcement agencies and industry and we, along with our partners, will continue working to detect and disrupt the criminal networks behind these scams.
“It’s easy for people to feel powerless in the face of AI, but it remains the case that prevention is a critical defence against all fraud. Ensuring people understand how AI can make scams more convincing, and equipping them with clear, practical advice to protect themselves, will be an incredibly powerful tool in the fight against AI-enabled scams.”
Rocio Concha, Which? head of policy and advocacy, said: “Which? research supports these findings and we’ve seen experts, let alone the general public, struggle to identify scams built with AI.
“The old ‘tell-tale signs’, such as typos or grammatical errors, can no longer be relied on to spot scams in an era of highly-sophisticated AI. This makes the AI Scams Watchlist an important tool to help people to stay ahead of this growing threat.
“This is a useful initiative to inform and empower consumers, but it is also necessary to root out fraud at its source. The tech giants who profit from scams must be held accountable.
“Ofcom should implement the Online Safety Act’s measures on fraudulent advertising as soon as possible and take immediate enforcement action against platforms who are failing to comply with the existing parts of the Act.”
Jessica Tye, regulatory projects manager at the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), said: “We welcome the launch of the AI Scam Watchlist, which shines a light on how AI is changing the way scams are created and delivered.
“As AI continues to evolve, it’s vital that everyone involved in tackling scams, including media platforms, regulators, and law enforcement bodies, works together to identify and disrupt them.
“We encourage anyone who sees a suspected scam ad in paid-for online space to report it through our Scam Ad Alert system. These reports help us build intelligence on emerging scams and share information with our partners, supporting action to protect consumers.”
Censuswide surveyed 2,000 UK adults between September 18-22.
