Banks aiming to prevent AI-powered scams targeting seniors

JACKSON, Tenn. — An alarming new wave of AI-powered scams are targeting senior citizens, leading to billions in losses. However, banks are stepping up to detect and prevent fraud.

It starts with a phone call, or a text message, or sometimes an email.

Scammers reach out to individuals in an attempt to wipe out their bank accounts and life savings. It can happen to anyone.

However, a recent survey shows senior citizens reported $3.4 billion in fraud losses last year. This is an 11% jump from the previous year.

Criminals are now using AI powered tools to gather information from senior citizens. This can be anything from voice cloning (scammers using AI to replicate the voices of loved ones after finding audio samples on social media) to deepfakes (a realistic fake video of loved ones or tech support representatives to trick seniors into granting remote access to their devices.)

Banks and other financial institutions are stepping up to detect fraud with new software.

“We have already developed a tool for catching check fraud. We are soon to release one to prevent wire fraud, and we are working on a tool for ACH fraud using AI technology,” said Andres Tapia, Director of Advisory Services, Abrigo.

The survey found that 36.8 percent of seniors want faster fraud alerts to safeguard their finances.

Financial institutions that purchase this software have the option to notify the customer and ask to verify the transaction.

Remember — urgency is a big red flag.

“No financial institution is going to pressure a senior citizen into making a transaction quickly,” Tapia said.

Experts also recommend reaching out to a trusted loved one for help if something doesn’t feel right. You can also enable the “silence unknown callers” feature in your phone settings to give you time to check if it is a scam.

“If someone calls in and they don’t know the phone number, they can just put that phone number into Google to see if that has been reported as a scam,” said Tapia.

Experts recommend senior citizens to have conversations with their banks to see how to prevent and lessen some of their exposure to fraud.

“It’s really sad to what scale this is happening, and it’s devastating to some of these senior citizens, if they do become victims, because it’s really hard if its not caught early to recover some of those,” Tapia said. “So it’s really critical that the community lean in and help these senior citizens out.”

If you feel you have been a victim, notify your bank immediately.

For more local news, click here.