With AI at Their disposal, Financial Scammers Are on The Rise

(Getty Images via the North Dakota Monitor)

(By: Paige Gross. North Dakota Monitor) – It started with a seemingly routine reminder for Nancy Hall to update her Norton antivirus software.

The 69-year-old Philadelphia resident sat down at her laptop to file her taxes recently and was prompted to call a number that was said to be the software company’s customer support. She had been hacked, the message said.

“It said, ‘you must call Microsoft right away, or else, you’re in danger of losing everything,’” Hall said.

A man on the line claimed to be in talks with her bank, saying hackers managed to download child pornography to her computer and transfer $18,000 to Russian accounts overnight.

He told Hall he was transferring her to the fraud department at her bank, where she spoke to someone who knew details about her local branch. After verifying personal details, that person asked her to come in to make a cash withdrawal that she could then use to purchase cryptocurrency at a specific ATM.

The pair told her she was at threat of being arrested by Homeland Security for what was found on her laptop unless she obliged.