Planning A Summer Vacation? Beware Of Rapidly Spreading AI Scams.

Since the earliest days of the internet, there have been nefarious folks using a variety of means in an effort to scam victims out of their money. But now that generative AI platforms are capable of doing most of the work on their own, the issue has become much more troublesome.

A staggering spike

So just how bad has it gotten? Marnie Wilking, who oversees internet safety for Booking.com, cited evidence that travel scams have increased by up to 900% in just the past year and a half, with most involving phishing schemes via email.

“The attackers are definitely using AI to launch attacks that mimic emails far better than anything that they've done to date,” she explained.

And travel sites are particularly susceptible, since they typically communicate with customers through email.

After hooking a victim with a fraudulent message, scammers generally take the money and run — but some brazen criminals take it further in hopes of bilking their prey out of even more cash.

What you can do

In the past, phishing schemes were pretty easy to spot. The emails often contained glaring grammatical errors and/or images that just didn’t look legitimate. But AI has made it much more difficult to spot a fake, so experts say travelers should use take a few extra steps to address this new security threat:

• Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of safety by requiring validation through a second device or app.
• Paying with a credit card usually provides some additional fraud protection coverage.
• Buying a package deal (flight, hotel, etc.) instead of using multiple platforms will limit your exposure to scams.

And consumer advocate Jane Hawkes added: “Check that contact details are readily available on websites and that there is a telephone number — many scam sites purposely don’t have one.”

Chris Agee June 21st, 2024

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