AI making scammer bait plausible
Experts are sounding the alarm that artificial intelligence in the hands of internet scammers can become an effective tool of deception.
Deepfake videos of the prime minister and well-known athletes, or articles signed by authoritative journalists proposing investments with high profits are circulating on social media preying on the careless and naive. Artificial intelligence is making the bait thrown by fraudsters at their unsuspecting victims increasingly plausible.
Fraudsters have even used the Kathimerini banner in a plausible video advertising a new cryptocurrency investment platform.
Despite the mistakes in the Greek language and the poor quality of the audiovisual material, it was an orchestrated attempt. The video, which lasts more than three minutes, shows Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis declaring that “an economic revolution is beginning before your eyes.” This material is contained in a publication supposedly signed by Kathimerini journalist Chryssa Liaggou.
“The scammers’ aim is to deceive people and take the money they are invited to invest in the advertised investment products. They create plausible content which, after digital editing, contains prestigious people.
“One of the risks that users face if they click on the link accompanying the post is the installation of malware, such as ransomware, on their device. However, deepfake videos are always accompanied by failures that betray the attempted deception,” said the director of the Cybercrime Department, Vassilis Papakostas, in comments to Kathimerini.
For cybercrime forensic scientist Vassilis Georgopoulos, “the rule is one and only one.”
“No one gets rich overnight. As in the real world, we should not take for granted that a stranger will offer us, free of charge, the opportunity to get rich, without any personal benefit,” he says.
“Once-traditional scams involving the buying and selling of foreign currencies have been replaced by cryptocurrency investment platforms, with which Greeks are becoming increasingly familiar,” he adds.
