Financial scams are rising, with losses amounting to $8.8 billion in 2022 alone. According to the United States Federal Trade Commission, losses from financial fraud have increased by 30% from 2021 to 2023. This paints a dire portrait of the dark underbelly of digital advancement, with scammers now leveraging generative artificial intelligence (AI) to craft increasingly complex and realistic scams.
Multiple reports suggest scammers can create chatbots that mimic human conversation, ask for personal financial details, create malware, write sophisticated phishing emails and even mimic human voices. The immediacy of instant payments via digital banking also presents an opportunity for fraudsters to deceive users into transferring money instantly, leaving defrauded users with little to no hope of getting their money back.