Are scammers becoming more sophisticated?

CBS News

a day ago

Odds are, your phone is inundated with text messages every week that are scams.
Some of them are very believable and can pull you right in, especially with the increased use of artificial intelligence.
In our "Question Everything" segment, WJZ anchor Rick Ritter answers, "Are scammers becoming more sophisticated?"
Scam texts can range from a final notice for a traffic ticket, or a missed package delivery that needs to be rescheduled, or even a job recruiter who claims they came across your resume.
It's hard to know what's real and what's not.
For Baltimore resident Erica C, the chances to make some extra cash pulled her right in.
"It's a hard economy enough with stuff like this going on," Erica said.
After recently buying a home, Erica was searching for a side job.
"I received a message from an anonymous number about a work-from-home opportunity," Erica said. "The thing is, I really was on different websites looking for remote work, and because I left my number on those different sites, I was thinking, 'OK, this is someone reaching out to me.'"
"They told me from the beginning they would give me $20 to start out, and that piqued my interest," Erica said.
"So this was believable to say the least?" Ritter asked.
"It absolutely was believable, and the next day I got even more money," Erica said.
From there, Erica was locked in.
Her job was to perform simple tasks in the app store, such as taking screenshots and submitting them. While she was doing this, she was in a chat room with what looked like real headshots of other individuals who were working.
What started as $20 in her Cash App quickly grew to more than $100. Then, there was a sudden shift.
"The next day, they were saying if you send us $300 via Bitcoin, you'll get back $390, so a surplus of $90," Erica said. "I actually went to my bank account and got out another $100, so altogether they got another $130 from me."
The pressure increased for her to send even more cash.
"That's when I finally started doing research on it and realized this was a scam," Erica said.
Ritter asked, "So they pulled you in, and when someone is giving you money, I mean, you think you're working, right?"
"Right, I know, it was just so easy," Erica said. "I definitely felt violated and, more importantly, I felt like I let myself down."
In 2024, more than $1 trillion was lost to fraud globally because of scams. Maryland alone lost close to $200 million, per reports.
"It's not uncommon to see a lot of sad stories like this come across our desk," said Clay Campbell, with the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland. "The scammers are preying on the victims' emotions in this kind of economy. It's real money and real people losing this type of money and time. It's sad and not fair."
"With artificial intelligence and technology, are scammers becoming more sophisticated these days?" Ritter asked.
"Scammers are absolutely becoming more sophisticated," Campbell said. "Before, we used to be able to say look out for grammar, misspelled words, crazy punctuation, but now scammers are able to use AI to create very believable text."
Victim losses to scam texts in the U.S. skyrocketed between 2020 and 2024, according to reports. It went from $86 million to $470 million in losses.
"The attacks are getting really, really sophisticated. And it just means that we, as individuals, have to be even more vigilant," said cyber security expert Markus Rauschecker. "These kinds of scams are at a scale that we've never seen before, and because of AI technology, it makes it very easy to send out these kinds of attacks at a scale that makes it profitable for them."
The good news is, there are some things you can do to protect yourself.
Experts say to do this if you believe you are getting scammed:
For the scammers, the risk is worth the reward.
What's worth it for Erica, at this point, is sharing her story.
"If I could save one person from a scam, that's why I showed up today," Erica said. "It's not easy to show up on camera and say, 'Hey guys, I've been fooled. It's just not a good feeling sitting on the other side, and when it's all said and done, these people do not care about our well-being or livelihoods."