Advance fee fraud campaigns are using generative AI in both text and video to speed up responses, evade filters, and make scams more convincing.
Large Language Models and other forms of Generative AI (GenAI) promise to make many people more productive, and cybercriminals are no exception. Fraudsters are using GenAI to enhance all kinds of scams, from consumer-focused bulk campaigns to highly targeted business email compromise attempts. High-profile cases have involved losses of tens of millions of dollars.
Over the last six months, Netcraft has noticed an increase in advance fee fraud emails with signs of ChatGPT-generated text, as well as a new pattern of deepfake videos designed to convince would-be victims and evade existing filters used to block scams, including examples impersonating the FBI, UN, and World Bank.
Advance fee fraud is a long-popular paradigm among scammers: they typically start with an unsolicited message indicating that the recipient is due money—for example, that a businessman has offered money to them or that they have won a competition such as an “internet lottery”—and that by paying a comparatively small fee, they will gain access to that fortune. However, the supposed fortune does not exist: once paid, the scammer will make off with the fee and either invent more roadblocks to continue extracting funds or move on to the next victim.
Another type of advance fee fraud we often see are compensation scams. Playing on the frequency of the previously mentioned lures, fraudsters claim that they can reunite the victim with their supposed funds. This is to further capitalize on people who had already fallen for other forms of scams, as the fraudster will themselves ask for a fee to be paid, with the fund never having existed.
“Sandra Steven” Deepfakes used to evade email filters
Netcraft recently received a …