AI is Targeting the Elderly

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is helping to make our lives better in many ways. From performing surgery to drafting legal documents, we are seeing lots of improvements.

It seems like innovations are everywhere.

Unfortunately the scammers are innovating as well.

Maybe you’ve been fooled by a video you saw on the internet. I certainly have. I thought something was real when it was just made through AI.

Scammers know artificial intelligence can fool people.

Imagine this scenario. You record a fun video of your spouse or your kids and post it on a social media site.

The bad guys can then take that video and clone one of the voices on it. Then they can make that voice say anything they want.

Now they make a phone call to one of your parents. They can ‘spoof’ a local number to make it look like a police station. And all of a sudden little Johnny is in trouble with the law. They need money to bail him out.

And he really would appreciate it if you don’t tell Mommy or Daddy.

Or maybe a family member is in the hospital and needs money? You need to send it right away.

Regular people fall for these scams all the time. Elderly people even more so.

Our assisted living homes have been targeted. Scammers saying they’re from the utility company said they will be cutting off our electricity if we didn’t pay immediately.

The number on my phone was the utility company number.

Fortunately they said I had to bring cash to a weird location. It raised my suspicion. I checked our bank account. We had regular monthly withdrawals for payment. We were not behind. I called the real electric company. They said it was a scam.

They tried a couple more times without success.

It’s important to make sure everyone in the family is aware of these scams. There are some things you can do to protect yourself.

Start with having a family pass phrase. Don’t write it down and definitely don’t put it on any electronic device. Don’t even discuss it in the proximity of an electronic device. Make it a challenge and response. Such as:

“Remember when you played baseball?”

“No I played football”.

If someone calls you pretending to be from the government or business, hang up and call them back. Don’t hit redial. Look up the number from your bill or their website and then call that.

If you receive a weird call and nobody is talking on the other end, they may be recording your voice. Don’t keep saying hello. If it is pretty silent on the other end, just hang up. I saw someone say they answer all unknown numbers by pretending they have a weird accent. I don’t think I would be that good to do that.

Also notice if any family member becomes more withdrawn. There are a lot of romance scams on the internet. Older adults who have lost a spouse are particularly vulnerable - especially if they live alone. I’ve seen some people in my assisted living homes fall for these scams. We were able to stop them before they sent money.

The bottom line is to keep an eye on each other. The scammers are becoming more sophisticated. We need to become more vigilant.