AI chatbots have become a dominant force in recent times, but beware, their rise has given cyber criminals the tools to create even more frightening scams. These malicious actors have discovered how AI can make their phishing attacks more insidious and terrifyingly effective.

Ironically, the phishing emails generated by a chatbot feel more human than ever before – which puts you and your people at greater risk of falling for a scam. So we all need to be even more careful.

The typical red flags that people are used to looking out for in suspicious emails, such as spelling and grammar errors, are now being eliminated by AI-powered phishing emails. The technology can even construct entire email threads that appear legitimate and trustworthy, making it even more difficult to distinguish between what's genuine and what's not.

According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the total reported losses due to phishing scams and related crimes reached $1.8 billion in 2020 in the United States alone. The IC3 also reported that the total losses due to these types of scams have been steadily increasing in recent years. Unfortunately, it is difficult to estimate the total amount of money lost worldwide to phishing scams as many incidents go unreported, and the data is constantly evolving.

Security tools that can detect these AI-generated emails are still in their infancy, leaving us all more vulnerable to these sinister tactics.

You must be even more vigilant when opening emails, particularly those that are unexpected. Double-check the sender's address, and if there's even the slightest doubt, don't hesitate to confirm with the sender (but don't reply to the email!).

It's true that cyber criminals are using AI chatbots to create more sophisticated and convincing phishing scams. While AI chatbots can be incredibly helpful and efficient tools for many industries, they can also be exploited by criminals to deceive and manipulate people into giving away sensitive information or money. It's important to remain vigilant when receiving emails, especially those that you're not expecting or from unknown senders. Check the sender's address, look out for spelling and grammar errors, and if you're in doubt, verify the legitimacy of the email with the supposed sender through a separate communication channel. Seeking further advice or training on how to protect yourself and your team from phishing scams can also be helpful in preventing such attacks.

To show how effective these tools have become, you may not have realized it, but ChatGPT was used to create everything before this paragraph in this blog post - even the headline. To get further advice or team training about phishing scams, just get in touch with us - we promise a human will respond.