(TNND) — More Americans say they’ve experienced some form of financial fraud over the last year, according to a new Bankrate survey.
And the threat isn’t going away, as artificial intelligence is allowing scammers to attack their victims with more frequency and sophistication, Bankrate said.
“Financial scams and fraud is on the rise,” Bankrate analyst Sarah Foster said. “It’s becoming more and more ubiquitous. More Americans this year actually say that those attempts were unsuccessful. So, the hope is that as more awareness gets spread about the rise in scams, that they’ll fall for them less.”
Bankrate found that 40% of Americans experienced some type of financial fraud or scam over the last 12 months, up from 34% in a similar Bankrate survey a year ago.
That 40% includes people who said a fraudster accessed or tried to access their personal or financial information, whether they ultimately lost money or not.
Just over 10% of people said they lost money to a fraud or scam.
More Americans, 52%, said they expect to be targeted by a scam in the future, up from 37% last year.
And almost everyone who responded to the survey, 95%, said they’ve taken steps to protect their finances from financial fraud or scams in the prior year.
A majority of Americans said they avoid suspicious links or emails, regularly check their financial accounts, enable two-factor authentication for personal accounts, and shred sensitive documents before throwing them away.
“I do think financial scams are just becoming a normal part of life, and everybody has to always keep their guard up, 24/7, because all it takes is one mistake,” Foster said.
AI is making financial fraud more common, she added.
The technology is making it easier for scammers to target massive amounts of people all at once, Foster said.
And AI is making the fraud attempts harder to spot.
Watching out for typos or a suspicious link in an email isn’t enough anymore, because AI is helping scammers avoid those telltale mistakes.
And Foster said AI is being used to generate deepfakes or to curate personal information that can help fraudsters tailor their attack to their victim.
Foster said account alerts and spam filters can serve as effective preventive measures against fraud.
“When it comes to preventing fraud, I really like setting up alerts on my accounts anytime a transaction greater than $100, maybe $150, is charged on my account,” she said.
Foster said it’s easy for money-stressed people to avoid keeping tabs on their accounts, and that can create opportunities for bad actors to sneak in through the cracks.
Foster said the spam filters on email and text messages are meant to minimize touch points with potential fraudsters.
But what should you do if you fall victim to financial fraud?
“I definitely think that it’s important to contact your bank as soon as possible, because the sooner you reach out, the more likely they are to reverse the charges,” Foster said. “And we hear so many stories from Americans who waited to report, and then by that point it was too late, and the money was gone. So, that is your first most important step.”
Foster and Bankrate also advised victims to change their passwords, file a report with the Federal Trade Commission to create a paper trail that could become important down the line, lean on the help offered by reputable consumer fraud hotlines, and consider freezing your credit to prevent new accounts from being opened in your name.
National Headline
