This makes AI an effective tool by scammers and con artists. Scammers using AI to fool their victims are now becoming more and more common.
Let this story of Katrine from La Trinidad, Benguet be a warning. Yesterday morning, Katrine's aunt received messages on Facebook from someone claiming to be a "friend" of Katrine. According to the friend's story, Katrine was hit by a motorcycle in Km. 5, La Trinidad. She was rushed to the hospital and is in critical condition and that urgent surgery is needed. But for the surgery to proceed, a downpayment of 35K needs to be paid immediately.
The "friend" claims she has already paid 10K of the amount with her own money pero yun lang daw laman ng wallet niya. So she needs 25K to complete the amount. She asked Katrine's aunt if she can send her the 25K immediately.
To make the story believable, the "friend" sent Katrine's aunt several photos of the supposed accident and photos taken from the hospital. One photo even had the likeness of Katrine being wheeled through a hospital hallway.
The aunt started panicking and was ready to send the money. Luckily, when she went to a nearby store to supposedly send some of the amount via Gcash, the storekeeper noticed her distress and asked what's going on. The aunt showed the storekeeper the photos. The storekeeper told her there's something off with the photos. They don't look real.
Already starting to get suspicious, the aunt called Katrine's manager at her workplace. Katrine isn't allowed to use her phone while on duty so her aunt called her manager instead. The manager told her Katrine is currently at her desk working.
That's when the aunt realized that the photos sent to her were not real and someone posing as Katrine's friend was trying to scam her.
Katrine's aunt didn't get scammed this time. She got lucky. But we all know that these scammers work by the numbers. They target dozens of people at the same time. Most of the scams will not be successful but there will be one or two who will fall to the scam.
𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆: In this age of AI, don't believe every photo or video you see online. There's a reason why the scammer who targeted Katrine's aunt used an accident story for the attempted scam. An accident story creates a sense of urgency. It also causes the targets to panic or become anxious thus making them easier to manipulate.
