Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping us advance technology in research and on-farm applications and plays a role in nearly every aspect of our lives. It is ingrained in our daily lives, in many cases without our awareness of the role it has played in the written, audio, and video content reaching our eyes and ears. It has the power to do incredible things to improve efficiencies, yet it also gives new tools to criminals looking to prey on unsuspecting individuals.

The types of scams that have been successful through the years remain the most common, but AI gives scammers powerful tools to create more sophisticated texts and emails and use chatbots, making it harder to detect that these conversations are not with humans. Additionally, voice-cloning and deepfake video scams remain on the rise, allowing a criminal to mimic the voice of you, a friend, a co-worker, or a loved one. An example of how advanced these calls are getting can be shown in this report by NBC News.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported impersonation scams cost an estimated $2.95 billion in consumer losses in 2024, which should alert consumers to fight back against voice cloning technology.

The FTC advises the following to help steer clear of impersonation scams:

• Don’t give money or personal information to someone who contacts you unexpectedly. If you’re not sure if a call or message is real, reach out to the business, organization, or person using contact information you looked up yourself and know to be true.
• Don’t trust your caller ID. Your caller ID might show the name of a government agency or business, but caller ID can be faked. It could be anyone calling from anywhere in the world.
• Don’t click on links in unexpected emails, texts, or social media messages. Scammers send emails and messages that look like they’re from a government agency or business, but they’re designed to steal your money and personal information.

If you suspect a scam, report it to the FTC website https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/. Your report is shared with more than 2,800 law enforcers investigating cases of fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Additionally, you can join the National Do Not Call Registry for free at the following website: https://www.donotcall.gov/register.html.

While writing this article, I received a spam text and suspected spam phone call in a short window of time. This is another stark reminder to stay vigilant and verify the identity of those who we interact with daily in our business and personal lives.