The rise of generative artificial intelligence is shaking the foundations of the digital world. The capabilities of this technology have further accentuated the flaws of our system, such as scams within the labor world.
New studies have shown that criminals use artificial intelligence as a tool to steal money and information from people looking for employment. One of the reports, conducted by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), revealed that scams increased by 118% in 2023 compared to the previous year.
Fraud works as follows: scammers pretend to be recruiters and post fake job offers on well-known platforms, such as LinkedIn. During the “selection processes,” scammers take advantage to obtain data from the interviewee. The objective is to use this data to impersonate their identity or carry out phishing attacks. On average, a victim can lose around $2,000, according to data provided by the FTC.
In these cases, generative artificial intelligence has proven to be a very effective ally for scammers. It allows them to create much more credible and truthful job offers. The ITRC’s research makes it clear: “AI-based tools help refine the discourse to make it more credible and compensate for cultural and grammatical differences in language use.”
However, this is not a common scam, for now. In 2023, these only represented 9% of identity thefts. Nowadays, the most common scam is perpetrated with Google Voice.
This last one is common among people who use second-hand sales platforms like Facebook Marketplace. If the seller provides their phone number, the scammer (posing as a customer) can send them a Google Voice verification code to prove that you are “real.” By passing this code to the fake customer, they can activate a Google Voice account pretending to be the seller.
Source: CNCB
